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SAXO GRAMMATICUS
(I-IX)

TRANSLATED, WITH EXCURSUSES.

Of this work 750 copies are printed, 360 of
which are issued to members of the Folk-lore
Society as the extra publication for 1893.

THE FIRST NINE BOOKS

THE DANISH HISTORY

SAXO GRAMMATICUS

TRANSLATED BY

OLIVER ELTON, B.A.,

SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND LECTURER ON ENGLISH

LITERATURE AT THE OWENS COLLEGE (VICTORIA UNIVERSITY),

MANCHESTER.

WITH SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON SAXO'S SOURCES, HISTORICAL
METHODS, AND FOLK-LORE,

FREDERICK YORK POWELL, M.A., F.S.A.,

STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.

"Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance."

LONDON :
DAVID NTJTT, 270-271, STRAND.

1804.

TO THE MEMORY

GVDBRAND VIGFVSSON

OCT 10 T359

J J<ZOO

{All righU remrved.)

CONTENTS.

PAGE

SLATC

r's Note

vii

)DUCT
§1-

ion : —

— Saxo's Position

§2.

— Life of Saxo

§3.

—The History

xiv

§4.

—Literary History of Saxo's Work -

xvi

§5.

—MS. Fragments

xix

§6.

— Saxo as a Writer

xxi

§7.-

—Folk-lore Index

(F. Y. P.) xxii

1. Political Institutions

, xxiii

2. Customary Law

, xxix

3. Statute Laws

4. War

, xlvi

5. Social Life and Manners

6. Supernatural Beings

lix

7. Funeral Rights and Eschatology

, lxvi

8. Magic and Folk-Science

, lxxvii

9. Saws and Proverbs -

, lxxxii

10. Folk-History

, lxxxix

11. Folk-Tales

, xci

§8.-

—Saxo's Materials and Methods

, xcvii

§9.-

—Saxo's Mythology

, cxv

§10.-

—Names in this Book

cxxvii

Text of Translation : —

Book

III

Book

118

148

VI CONTENTS.

PAGE

Book VI ..... 212

Book VII ..... 260

Book VIII - - - - - 309

Book IX - - - - - 361

Appendix I. — Passages from Saxo's Later Books - - 391

Appendix II. — Note on Saxo's Hamlet - - - 398

Appendix III. — Genealogies of Kings - (F. Y. P.) 414

Appendix IV.— Last News of Starcad - (F. Y. P.) 418
Indices: —

I. Persons and Places .... 422

II. Norse Poems cited .... 433

III. Sagas, etc., cited ----- 434

IV. Modern Students cited - - - - 434
V. Classics, etc., cited .... 435

Additions and Corrections .... 436

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

The extensive sections (§§ 7, 8, and 9) of the Introduction
which deal with Saxo's sources and methods, and with
his references to myth, custom, and folk-lore, have been
contributed by my friend, Mr. F. York Powell ; as well as
Appendices III and IV. For the final form of the rest of
the work, which he has also overlooked and aided, I
am responsible. The proofs of the translation (excepting
Appendix I) have also been kindly read by my colleague,
Mr. Edward Fiddes, M.A., whose Latin scholarship has
been of great service. Cordial thanks are due to the
Council of the Folk-Lore Society for the encouragement
they have given to the work.

The following abbreviations are used : — St. for Stephanius ;
Sch. for Schousbolle ; M. for Muller and Velschow ; H. for
Holder (see pp. xviii-xix).

DL
14-7

5 3

INTRODUCTION.

1. — Saxo's Positiox.

Saxo " Grammaticus", or u The Lettered", one of the notable
historians of the Middle Ages, may fairly be called not only
the earliest chronicler of Denmark, but her earliest writer.
In the latter half of the twelfth century, when Iceland was
in the flush of literary production, Denmark lingered behind.
No literature in her vernacular, save a few Runic inscriptions,
has survived. Monkish annals, devotional works, and lives
were written in Latin ; but the chronicle of Roskild,1 the
necrology of Lund,2 the register of gifts to the cloister of
Sora,3 are not literature.4 Neither are the half -mythological
genealogies5 of kings ; and besides, the mass of these, though
doubtless based on older verses that are lost, are not proved to
be, as they stand, prior to Saxo. One man only, Saxo's elder
contemporary, Sueno Aggonis, or Sweyn (Svend) Aageson, who
wrote about 1185, shares or anticipates the credit of attempt-
ing a connected record. His brief draft of annals is written
in rough mediocre Latin. It names but a few of the kings

1 Printed in Langebek's Scriptores Her. Dan., vol. i. 373, No. xxvi.

2 S. R. D., iii. 422, No. xc. 3 S. R. D., iv. 463, No. cxxi.

4 There is a long poem in elegiacs, which is perhaps literature
(S. R. D. i. 398, No. xxviii), written by a monk, Ermoldus Nigellus,
upon the baptism of Harald in 827. But Bremen, not Denmark, was
the chief Northern centre for devotional literature. See (e.g.) S. R. D. i.
427, No. xxx. The English monk yElnoth lived in Denmark at the end
of the eleventh century, and wrote a,Historia S. Canuti (S. R. D., vol. iii).
For a popular sketch of the state of letters at the time, see Horn's History
of the Literature of the Scandinavian North, Engl, tr., Anderson, Chicago,
1884, pp. 95-105.

5 S. R. D. , vol. i. See our Appendix III, on Genealogies.

X INTRODUCTION.

recorded by Saxo, and tells little1 that Saxo does not. Yet
there is a certain link between the two writers. Sweyn
speaks of Saxo with respect2 ; he not obscurely leaves him
the task of tilling up his omissions. Both writers, servants
of the brilliant Bishop Absalon, and probably set by him
upon their task, proceed, like Geoffrey of Monmouth, by
gathering and editing mythical matter. This they more or less
embroider, and arrive in due course insensibly at actual history.
Both, again, thread their stories upon a genealogy of kings in
part legendary. Both write at the spur of patriotism, loth to
let Denmark linger in the race for light and learning, and
desirous to save her glories, as other nations have saved theirs,
by a record. But while Sweyn only made a skeleton chronicle,
Saxo leaves a memorial in which historian and philologist
find their account. His seven later books are the chief Danish
authority for the times which they relate ; his first nine, here
translated, are a treasure of myth and folk-lore. Of the songs
and stories which Denmark possessed from the common Scan-
dinavian stock, often her only native record is in Saxo's Latin.
Thus, as a chronicler both of truth and fiction he had in
his own land no predecessor, nor had he any literary tradition
behind him. Single-handed, therefore, he may be said to
have lifted the dead-weight against him, and given Denmark
a writer. The nature of his work will be discussed presently.

§ 2. — Life of Saxo.

Of Saxo little is known but what he himself indicates,
though much doubtful supposition has gathered round his
name.

1 Sweyn relates at length the tale of Uffe (see infra, p. 106* sq.), and adds
a ^ood one of Queen Thyra (infra, p. 319 sq.). She tricks an importunate
German prince, Otto, and with his own bribe pays the cost of erecting
against him the great bulwark called Danewerh.

1 See infra, p. xiii.

Throughout tlic Introduction, though not elsewhere, the references to the pages of Saxo
dcnoa the marginal vms in this Look, which are those of Holder's text. This is for the con-
ttudent* Whoprcfer working with the Latin.

INTRODUCTION. XI

That he was born a Dane his whole language implies1; it
is full of a glow of aggressive patriotism. He also often
praises the Zealanders2 at the expense of other Danes, and
Zealand as the centre3 of Denmark ; but that is the whole
contemporary evidence for the statement that he was a Zea-
lander. This statement is freely taken for granted4 three
centuries afterwards by Urne in the first edition of the
book (1514), but is not traced further back than an epito-
mator,5 who wrote more than 200 years after Saxo's death.
Saxo tells usG that his father and grandfather fought for
Waldemar the First of Denmark, who remned from 1157 to
1182. Of these men we know nothing further, unless the
Saxo whom he names7 as one of Waldemar's admirals be his
grandfather, in which case his family was one of some dis-
tinction, and his father and grandfather probably " King's
men". But Saxo was a very common name, and we shall see
the licence of hypothesis to which this fact has given rise.
The notice, however, helps us approximately towards Saxo's
birth-year. His grandfather, if he fought for Waldemar, who
began to reign in 1157, can hardly have been born before 1100,
nor can Saxo himself well have been born before 1145 or 1150.
But he was undoubtedly born before 1158, since he speaks of
the death of Bishop Asker, which took place in that year, as
occurring " in our time".8 His life therefore covers and over-
laps the last half of the twelfth century.

His calling and station in life are debated. Except by the
anonymous Zealand chronicler,9 who calls him Saxo " the

1 Preface, ad. init., and passim.

2 Especially in the later books ; see pp. 504, 517, 548, 609, 610, ed.
Holder. 3 Pref., p. 5.

4 Both in the title-page and headings to books.

5 Doubtfully called "Gheysmer". See note, p. lxxxvii, in Prolegomena
by Velschow in vol. ii (Notae Uberiores) of Miiller and Velschow's edition
of Saxo. The main results of these Prolegomena are given (with rare
dissent) in the above account. Miiller and Velschow's work must be
the quarry for all students of the subject. 6 Preface, p. 4.

7 Bk. xiv, p. 494 (ed. Holder). * Bk. xi, p. 385 (ed. Holder).

9 Script. Rev. Ban. ii. 608, quoted Proleg., p. v.

xii INTRODUCTION.

Long", thus giving us the one personal detail we have, he has
been universally known as Saxo Grammaticus ever since
the epitoinator of 1431 headed his compilation with the
words, "A certain notable man of letters [grammaticus], a
Zealander by birth, named Saxo, wrote," etc. It is almost
certain1 that this general term, given only to men of signal
gifts and learning, became thus for the first time, and for
good, attached to Saxo's name. Such a title, in the Middle
Ages, usually implied that its owner was a churchman,
and Saxo's whole tone is devout, though not conspicuously
professional. But a number of Saxos present themselves
in the same surroundings with whom he has been from time
to time identified. All he tells us himself is, that Absalon,
Archbishop of Lund from 1179 to 1201, pressed him,2 who
was " the least of his companions, since all the rest refused
the task", to write the history of Denmark, so that it might
record its glories like other nations. Absalon was previously,
and also after his promotion, Bishop of Roskild, and this is
the first circumstance giving colour to the theory — which
lacks real evidence — that Saxo the historian was the same as
a certain Saxo, Provost of the Chapter of Roskild, whose
death is chronicled in a contemporary hand without any
mark of distinction. It is unlikely that so eminent a man
would be thus barely named ; and the appended eulogy and
verses identifying the Provost and the historian are of later
date.3 Moreover, the Provost Saxo went on a mission to
Paris in 1165, and was thus much too old for the theory.4
Nevertheless, the good Bishop of Roskild, Lave Urne, took
this identity for granted in the first edition, and fostered the
assumption. Saxo was a cleric ; and could such a man be of
less than canonical rank ? He was (it was assumed) a Zea-
lander; he was known to be a friend of Absalon, Bishop of
Roskild. What more natural than that he should have been
the Provost Saxo? Accordingly this latter worthy had an
inscription in gold letters, written by Lave Urne himself,
affixed to the wall opposite his tomb.

1 Proleg., p. viii. -Pref.,p. 1. 3 Proleg., p. x. 4 lb., p. xviii.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

Even less evidence exists for identifying1 our Saxo with the
scribe of that name — a comparative menial — who is named in
the will of Bishop Absalon ; and hardly more warranted is the
theory2 that he was a member, perhaps a sub-deacon, of the
monastery of St. Laurence, whose secular canons formed part
of the Chapter of Lund. It is true that Sweyn Aageson, Saxo's
senior by about twenty years, speaks (writing about 1185) of
Saxo3 as his contubernalis. Sweyn Aageson is known to
have had strong family connections with the monastery of
St. Laurence ; but there is only a tolerably strong probability
that he, and therefore that Saxo, was actually a member of
it. (Contubernalis may only imply comradeship in military
service.4) Equally doubtful is the consequence5 that since
Saxo calls himself "one of the least" of Absalon's "followers"
(comitum), he was probably, if not the inferior officer, who is
called an acolitus, at most a sub-deacon, who also did the work
of a superior acolitus. This is too poor a place for the chief
writer of Denmark, high in Absalon's favour, nor is there any
direct testimony that Saxo held it. His education is equally
unknown, but must have been careful. Of his training and
culture we only know what his book betrays. Possibly, like
other learned Danes, then and afterwards, he acquired his
training and knowledge at some foreign University. Perhaps,
like his contemporary Anders Suneson,6 he went to Paris ; but
we cannot tell. It is not even certain that he had a degree ;
for there is really little to identify him with the " M[agister]
Saxo" who witnessed the deed of Absalon7 founding the
monastery at Sora.

1 Proleg., p. xv.

2 Velschow's own. His argument is elaborate, but hardly convincing.

3 Script. Iter. Dan. i. 56. Quorum gesta superfluimi duxi plene recolere,
ne crebrins idem repetitum fastiddum pareret legentihts, qmim, illustri
archipnesule Absalone referente, contubernalis mens Saxo elegantiori stilo
omnium gesta prolixius exponere decreverit.

4 C. Paludan-Miiller, in Historisk Tidsskrift, Series iv, vol. v, 344.

6 Proleg., p. xxv. c Preface, p. 2.

7 Proleg., p. 28. Velschow inclines to assuming this identity.

xiv INTRODUCTION.

§ 3. — The History.

How he was induced to write his book has been mentioned.1
The expressions of modesty Saxo uses, saying that he was "the
least" of Absalon's " followers", and that " all the rest refused
the task", are not to be taken to the letter. A man of his
parts would hardly be either the least in rank, or the last to
be solicited. The words, however, enable us to guess an up-
ward limit for the date of the inception of the work. Absalon
became Archbishop in 1179, and the language of the Preface
(written, as we shall see, last) implies that he was already
Archbishop when he suggested the History to Saxo. But about
1185 we find Sweyn Aageson2 complimenting Saxo, and saying
that Saxo "had determined? to set forth all the deeds" of Sweyn
Estridson, in his eleventh book, " at greater length in a more
elegant style". The exact bearing of this notice on the date
of Saxo's History is doubtful. It certainly need not imply
that Saxo had already written ten books, or indeed that he
had written any, of his History. All we can say is, that by
1185 a portion of the History was planned. The order in
which its several parts were composed, and the date of its
completion, are not certainly known, as Absalon died in 1201.
But the work was not then finished ; for, at the end of Bk. XI,4
one Birger, who died in 1202, is mentioned as still alive.

We have, however, a yet later notice. In the Preface, which,
as its whole language implies, was written last,5 Saxo speaks
of Waldemar II having " encompassed [comjilexus] the ebbing
and flowing waves of Elbe".6 This language, though a little
vague, can hardly refer to anything but an expedition of
Waldemar to Bremen in 1208. The whole History was in that

1 See Preface, opening, and note on Absalon.

'-' See p. xiii, supra, note. 3 Decrevisse.

4 Bk. xi, p. 394 (ed. Holder).

5 Except the geographical part, pp. 4 sqq. Some of this must have
been written before the reference in Bk. vn, p. 247, to the rock in
Rleking inscribed with runes (cuius memmi). (Proleg., p. xlv, note.)

,; Pref., p. 4.

INTRODUCTION. XV

case probably finished by about 1208. As to the order1 in which
its parts were composed, it is likely that Absalon's original
instruction was to write a history of Absalon's own doings.
The fourteenth and succeeding books deal with these at dis-
proportionate length, and Absalon, at the expense even of
Waldemar, is the protagonist. Now Saxo states in his Preface2
that he " has taken care to follow the statements [asserta] of
Absalon, and with obedient mind and pen to include both his
own doings and other men's doings of which he learnt".

The latter books are, therefore, to a great extent, Absalon's
personally communicated memoirs. But we have seen that
Absalon died in 1201, and that Bk. xi, at any rate, was not
written after 1202. It almost certainly follows that the latter
books were written in Absalon's life ; but the Preface, written
after them, refers to events in 1208. Therefore, unless we sup-
pose that the issue was for some reason delayed, or that Saxo
spent seven years in polishing — which is not impossible — there
is some reason to surmise that he began with that portion of
his work which was nearest to his own time, and added the
previous (especially the first nine, or mythical) books, as a
completion, and possibly as an afterthought. But this is a
point which there is no real means of settling.3 We do not

1 Proleg., p. xxxix sqq. 2 P. 3.

3 A. D. Jorgensen, Bidrag til Nor dens Historie i Middelalderen (Copenh.,
1871), pp. 224-8, suggests that Saxo first (at Absalon's instance) wrote
the History from the Wolfings, 1047 a.d. to 1170, the critical year of
Waldemar's conquests ; then the preceding part ; and then (probably
after Absalon's death) the part describing 1176-85. This is assuming a
good deal. C. Paludan-Miiller (op. cit.f p. 348) ingeniously points out
that while there are allusions in Bks. i-x to Saxo's own time, there are no
certain ones in Bks. xi-xvi to Saxo's myths : which looks as if the com-
pilation of the latter were an afterthought. The same critic (p. 374)
builds further an elaborate theory about the order of composition, into
which I cannot follow him. The notice of Absalon's client, Arnold the
Icelander (Bk. xiv, p. 594, ed. Holder), who "was as well up in antiquity
as in divining, and skilled in telling clever stories", though important as
bearing on Saxo's Icelandic sources, gives no real clue as to the date when
Arnold told him sagas : for Arnold may easily have done so before the
expedition to Saxony in connection with which Saxo first names him.

Xvi INTRODUCTION.

know how late the Preface was written, except that it must
have been some time between 1208 and 1223, when Anders
Suneson ceased to be Archbishop : nor do we know when Saxo

died.

§ 4. — History of the Work.

Nothing is stranger than that a work of such force and genius,
unique in Danish letters, should have been forgotten for three
hundred years, and have survived only in an epitome and in
exceedingly few manuscripts. The history of the book is
worth recording. Doubtless its very merits, its " marvellous
vocabulary, thickly-studded maxims, and excellent variety of
images", which Erasmus1 admired long afterwards, sealed it
to the vulgar. A man needed some Latin to appreciate it, and
Erasmus' natural wonder " how a Dane at that day could have
such a force of eloquence" is a measure of the rarity both of
the gift and of a public that could appraise it. The epitome
(made about 1430) shows that Saxo was felt to be difficult,
its author saying : " Since Saxo's work is in many places
diffuse, and many things are said more for ornament than for
historical truth, and moreover his style is too obscure on
account of the number of terms [phmma vocabula] and
sundry poems, which are unfamiliar to modern times, this
npuscle puts in clear words the more notable of the deeds
there related, with the addition of some that happened after
Saxo's death." A Low-German version2 of this epitome, which
appeared in 1485, had a considerable vogue, and the two
together " helped to drive the history out of our libraries, and
explains why the annalists and geographers of the Middle
Ages so seldom quoted it." This neglect appears to have been

1 In the dialogue De optimo dicendi genere, vol. i, p. 1013 (ed. 1523).
"In Ihininhi \naviga/re\ malo; qme nobis dedit Saxonem Grammaticvm, <jvi
sua gentis historiam apUndide magnijiceque contexnit. Probo vividnm et
ardent ingeninm; orationem nusquam remissam ant donnitantem, turn
in i ram verborum copia/mt sententias crebras, et jigurarum admirabilem
nirii iiil, ,n, "f suti.s adtniraH neqneam, wide ilia (Hate homini Dano tauto
doquendi suppetiverit, S<-d vix utta in Ulo Oiceronis lineamevto
reperuw." - See Holder, p. xv.

INTRODUCTION. XV11

greatest of all in Denmark, and to have lasted until the
appearance of the First Edition in 1514.

The first impulse towards this work,1 by which Saxo was
saved, is found in a letter from the Bishop of Roskild, Lave
Urne, dated May 1512, to Christian Pederson, Canon of Lund,
whom he compliments as a lover of letters, antiquary, and
patriot, and urges to edit and publish tarn divinum latinae
eruditionis cidmen et splendorem Saxonem nostrum. Nearly
two years afterwards Christian Pedersen sent Lave Urne
a copy of the first edition, now all printed, with an account of
its history. " I do not think that any mortal was more
inclined and ready for" the task. " When living at Paris,
and paying heed to good literature, I twice sent a messenger
at my own charges to buy a faithful copy at any cost, and
bring it back to me. Effecting nothing thus, I went back to
my country for this purpose ; I visited and turned over all
the libraries, but still2 could not pull out a Saxo, even covered
with beetles, bookworms, mould, and dust. So stubbornly
had all the owners locked it away." A worthy prior, in com-
passion offered to get a copy and transcribe it with his own
hand, but Christian, in respect for the prior's rank, absurdly
declined. At last Birger, the Archbishop of Lund, by some
strategy, got3 a copy, which King Christian the Second
allowed to be taken to Paris on condition of its being wrought
at " by an instructed and skilled graver [printer]". Such a
person was found in Jodocus Badius Ascensius, who adds a
third letter written by himself to Bishop Urne, vindicating his
application to Saxo of the title Grammaticus, which he well
defines as " one who knows how to speak or write with
diligence, acuteness, or knowledge". The beautiful book he
produced was worthy of the zeal, and unsparing, unweariable

1 See Holder, pp. xvii-xx. Velschow, Proleg , p. lxxxiv. Also Bruun,
op. cit. infra.

2 Nee tamen Saxonem blattis tiueis situ et pulvere obsitum eruere potui.

3 Pio compendio. Bruun thinks these difficulties must be exaggerated.
We know nothing further of the MS. used, or of the precise share
Christian had in the editing.

Xviii INTRODUCTION.

pains, which had been spent on it by the band of enthusiasts,
and it was truly a little triumph of humanism. Further
editions were reprinted during the sixteenth century at Basle
and at Frankfurt-on-Main, but they did not improve in any
way upon the first ; and the next epoch in the study of Saxo
was made by the edition and notes of Stephanus Johansen
Stephanius, published at Copenhagen in the middle of the
seventeenth century (1644). Stephanius, the first com-
mentator on Saxo, still remains the best upon his language.
Immense knowledge of Latin, both good and bad (especially
of the authors Saxo imitated), infinite and prolix industry, a
sharp eye for the text, and continence in emendation, are not
his only virtues. His very bulkiness and leisureliness are
charming ; he writes like a man who had eternity to write in,
and who knew enough to fill it, and who expected readers of
an equal leisure. He also prints some valuable notes signed
with the famous name of Bishop Bryniolf of Skalholt, a man
of force and talent, and others by Caspar Barth, corculum
Mwsarwm, as Stephanius calls him, whose textual and other
comments are sometimes of use, and who worked with a
MS. of Saxo. The edition of Klotz, 1771, based on that of
Stephanius, I have but seen ; however, the first standard com-
mentary is that begun by P. E. Mliller, Bishop of Zealand, and
finished after his death by Johan Velschow, Professor of His-
tory at Copenhagen, where the first part of the work, con-
taining text and notes, was published in 1839 ; the second,
with prolegomena and fuller notes, appearing in 1858. The
standard edition, containing bibliography, critical apparatus
based on all the editions and MS. fragments, text, and index, is
the admirable one of that indefatigable veteran, Alfred Holder,
Strasburg, 1886.

Hitherto the translations of Saxo have been into Danish.
The first that survives, by Anders Soffrinson Vedel, dates
from 1575, some sixty years after the first edition. In such
passages as I have examined it is vigorous, but very free, and
more like a paraphrase than a translation, Saxons verses being
put into loose prose. Yet it has had a long life, having been

INTRODUCTION. XIX

modified by Vedel's grandson, Johan Laverentzen, in 1715,
and reissued in 1851. The present version has been much
helped by the translation of Seier Schousbolle, published at
Copenhagen in 1752. It is true that the verses, often the
hardest part, are put into periphrastic verse (by Laurentius
Thura, c. 1721), and Schousbolle often does not face a difficulty;
but he gives the sense of Saxo simply and concisely. The
lusty paraphrase by the enthusiastic Nik. Fred. Sev. Grundtvig,
of which there have been several editions, has also been of
occasional use. No other translations, save of a scrap here
and there into German, seem to be extant.

| 5.— The MSS.

It will be understood, from what has been said, that no_
complete MS. of Saxo's History is known. The epitomator1
in the fourteenth century, and Krantz2 in the seventeenth, had
MSS. before them ; and there was that one which Christian
Pedersen found and made the basis of the first edition, but
which has disappeared. Barth had two manuscripts, which
are said to have been burnt in 1636. Another, possessed by a
Swedish parish priest, Aschaneus, in 1630, which Stephanius
unluckily did not know of, disappeared in the Royal Archives
of Stockholm after his death. These are practically the only
MSS.3 of which we have sure information, excepting the four
fragments that are now preserved. Of these by far the most
interesting is the " Angers Fragment".

This4 was first noticed in 1863, in the Angers Library,

1 The Pseudo-Gheysmer inserts a long "extract" from Saxo, which is
his own pruned version, unhappily.

2 Krantz (d. 1517) also changes Saxo's words, especially his proper
names.

3 For more particulars about all these, see Holder, pp. xi-xvi.

4 The Fragment begins with the words specimen preferebat (p. 17 of
this translation, p. 11, 1. 35, of Holder's edition), and goes on to diffi-
cilisque (p. 20 of our translation, Holder, p. 16, 1. 3). It consists of four
leaves of parchment in quarto, with fifteen lines on each page. It is now

b 2

XX INTRODUCTION*.

where it was found degraded into the binding of a number of
devotional works and a treatise on metric, dated 1459, and
once the property of a priest at Alencon. In 1877 M. Gaston
Paris called the attention of the learned to it, and the result
was that the Danish Government received it next year in
exchange for a valuable French manuscript which was in the
Royal Library at Copenhagen. This little national treasure,
the only piece of contemporary writing of the History, has been
carefully photographed and edited by that enthusiastic and
urbane scholar, Christian Bruun.1 In the opinion both of
Dr. Vigfusson and M. Paris, the writing dates from about 1200;
and this date, though difficult to determine,2 owing to the
paucity of Danish MSS. of the 12th and early 13th centuries,
is confirmed by the character of the contents. For there is
little doubt that the Fragment shows us Saxo in the labour of
composition. The MS. looks as if expressly written for inter-
lineation. Besides a marginal gloss by a later, fourteenth
century hand, there are two distinct sets of variants, in
different writings, interlined and running over into the margin.
These variants are much more numerous in the prose than
in the verse. The first set are in the same hand as the text,
the second in another hand : but both of them have the
character, not of variants from some other MS., but of alterna-
tive expressions put down tentatively. If either hand is
Saxo's it is probably the second. He may conceivably have
dictated both at different times to different scribes. No other
man would tinker the style in this fashion. A complete
translation of all these changes has been deemed unnecessary
in this volume ; there is a full collation in Holder's Apparatus

described in the Royal Library at Copenhagen as "Nye kongelige Saniling
af Haandskrifter, 4U, Nr. 869V (Holder.)

1 Angers- Fraymentet af ct Ilaandskrift af Saxo-Grammaticvs, by Chr.
Bruun, Copenh., 1879. Also: Om det nylig fundne Fragment af en
codex af Saxo-Orammatticus, by the same; in Tidskrift for Philologi og
Paedagogik, 1861, ii, 41-51. Also : Det i Angers fundne Brudstyhke af
Sa.ro (irannnnticns (photographic facsimile), by the same. The above
account is taken from Bruun's various works.

2 Bruun, Any eis- Fraymentet, etc., p. xix sq.

INTRODUCTION. XXI

Criticus. The verdict of the Angers-Fragment, which, for
the very reason mentioned, must not be taken as the final
form of the text, nor therefore, despite its antiquity, as con-
clusive against the First Edition where the two differ, is to
confirm, so far as it goes, the editing of Ascensius and Peder-
son. There are no vital differences, and the care of the first
editors, as well as the authority of their source, is thus far
amply vindicated.

A sufficient account of the other fragments will be found
in Holder's list. In 1855 M. Kall-Rasmussen found in the
private archives at Kronborg a scrap of fourteenth century
MS., containing a short passage from Bk. VII. Five years
later Q. F. Lassen found, at Copenhagen, a fragment of Bk. vi,
believed to be written in .North Zealand, and in the opinion
of Bruun belonging to the same codex as Kall-Rasmussen's
fragment. Of another longish piece, found in Copenhagen at
the end of the seventeenth century by Johannes Laverentzen,
and belonging to a codex burnt in the fire of 1728, a copy,
still extant in the Copenhagen Museum, was made by Otto
Sperling. For fragments, either extant or alluded to, of the
later books, the student should consult the carefully collated
text of Holder. The whole MS. material, therefore, covers but
a little of Saxo's work, which was practically saved for
Europe by the perseverance and fervour for culture of a single
man, Bishop Urne.

§ G. — Saxo as a Writer.

Saxo's countrymen have praised without stint his remark-
able style, for he has a style. It is often very bad ; but he
twites, he is not in vain called Grammaticus, the man of
letters. His style is not merely remarkable considering its
author's difficulties ; it is capable at need of pungency and of
high expressiveness. His Latin is not that of the Golden Age,
but neither is it the common Latin of the Middle Ages. There
are traces of his having read Virgil and Cicero. But two
writers in particular left their mark on him. The first and

XXll INTRODUCTION.

most influential is Valerius Maximus, the mannered author
of the Memorabilia, who lived in the first halt' of the first
century, and was much relished in the Middle Ages. From
him Saxo borrowed a multitude of phrases, sometimes apt
but often crabbed and deformed, as well as an exemplary
and homiletic turn of narrative. Other idioms, and perhaps
the practice of interspersing verses amid prose (though this
also was a twelfth century Icelandic practice), Saxo found
in a fifth century writer, Martianus Capella, the pedantic
author of the Be Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. Such
models may have saved him from a base mediaeval voca-
bulary ; but they were not worthy of him, and they must
answer for some of his falsities of style. These are apparent.
His accumulation of empty and motley phrase, like a
garish bunch of coloured bladders ; his joy in platitude and
pomposity, his proneness to say a little thing in great words,
are only too easy to translate. We shall be well content if
our version also gives some inkling of his qualities ; not only
of what Erasmus called his " wonderful vocabulary, his many
pithy sayings, and the excellent variety of his images" ; but
also of his feeling for grouping, his barbaric sense of colour,
and his stateliness. For he moves with resource and strength
both in prose and verse, and is often only hindered by his
own wealth. With no kind of critical tradition to chasten
him, his force is often misguided and his work shapeless;
bub he stumbles into many splendours.

§ 7. — Folk-Lore Index.

The mass of archaic incidents, beliefs, and practices re-
corded by this 12th-century writer seemed to need some
other classification than a bare alphabetic index. The present
plan, a subject-index practically, has been adopted with a
view to the needs of the anthropologist and folk-lorist. Its
details have been largely determined by the bulk and charac-
ter of the entries themselves. No attempt has been made to
supply full parallels from any save the more striking and

INTRODUCTION. xxili

obvious old Scandinavian sources, the end being to classify
material rather than to point out its significance of geographic
distribution. With regard to the first three heads, the reader
who wishes to see how Saxo compares with the Old Northern
poems may be referred to the Grimm Centenary Papers,
Oxford, 1886, cited as G. G. P., and the Corpus Poeticum
Boreale, Oxford, 1883, cited as G P. B.

N.B. — The references are, as throughout this Introduction,
to the marginal figures in the present volume, denoting the
pages of the best and handiest edition of the text, Dr. Holder's.

The subjects are thus arranged : —

1. Political Institutions, kings, counsellors, earls, thanes,
hundred-elders, moots, palace, yeoman, smith, slavery.

2. Custom-Law, maxims, marriage, family and blood re-
venge, bootless crimes, offences, suicide, wager of battle, oaths,
will.

3. Statute Laws, law-givers (Sciold, Frocle, Helge, Ragnar),
tributes.

4. War, weapons, tactics, strategics, ships and sea warfare,
champions.

5. Social Life and Manners, feasts, games, dress and
ornaments, the chace, name-gifting, writing.

6. Supernatural Beings, gods and goddesses, fates, giants,
dwarves, Walcyries.

7. Funeral Rites and Eschatology, barrow-burial, ghosts,
other worlds, Voyages of Hadding, Thorkill 1, Thorkill 2 ;
Christianity.

8. Magic and Folk- Science, spells, omens, dreams, curses,
folk-medicine and surgery, observation of nature.

9. Saws and Proverbs.

10. Folk-History.

11. Folk-Tales.

1. — political institutions.

King. — As portrayed by Saxo, the ideal king should be
(as in Beowulf's Lay) generous (ii. 55, viii. 296), brave (vii. 221),

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

and just (i. 12). He should be a man of accomplishments (v.
1241), of unblemished body, presumably of royal kin (vii. 280)
(peasant-birth is considered a bar to the kingship, vi. 176),
usually a son, or nephew, or brother of his foregoer (though
no strict rule of succession seems to appear in Saxo), and
duly chosen and acknowledged (i. 10 ; iv. 1002; vii. 254) at the
proper place of election. In Denmark this was at a stone
circle, and the stability of the stones was taken as an omen
for the king's reign (i. 10). There are exceptional instances
noted, as the serf-king Eormenric (cf. Guthred-Canute of
Northumberland), whose noble birth washed out this blot of
his captivity, and there is a curious tradition of a conqueror
setting his hound as king over a conquered province in
mockery (vii. 240).3

1 Ambidexterity, swimming, and swordsmanship are mentioned, v. 124 ;
cf. C. P. B. i. 241-2 of the arch-king, C. P. B. ii. 40 of Harold Greyfell ;
G. P. B. ii. 270 of Earl Rognwald of the Orkneys; and C. P. B. ii. 199
of Olaf Tryggwesson ; and Olaf Trygg wesson's Life, Heimscringla, ch. 92,
where Snorre draws the ideal king, bodily and mentally.

2 Hjarrand the harper is made king on a caprice of the people's that
they would give the crown for the best epitaph on their dead king Frode
(vi. 172). A kingdom for a song ! A king is made by acclamation (iv. 100).

3 This legend obtained elsewhere in Scandinavia. Cf. Hacon the
Good's Life, ch. 13: "Of Eystan the Bad. Eystan, the Uplanders-
king, whom some call the Mighty and some the Bad, he harried in
Throndham, and laid under him the Ey-folk and the Sparbider folk, and
set thereover his son An wend, but the Thronds slew him. King Eystan
went again a warring in Throndham, and harried widely there, and laid
it under him. Then he asked the Thronds whether they would rather
have his slave named Thore mane as their king, or his dog named Saur.
They chose the dog, for they thought they would then get more self-rule.
They found there was three men's wit in the dog ; he barked two words
and spoke the third. Collars were made for his neck of silver and gold,
and where it was miry his court-men bare him on their shoulders. There
was a high seat made for him, and he sat on a barrow like a king, and
dwelt in the Isle of Idry, and had a seat there at a place called Saur's
howe. It is said, that it was his death, that wolves attacked his herds,
and his court-men egged him on to guard his cattle. He walked off the
barrow and went straightway where the wolves were, and they tore
him straightway asunder. Many other wonders did Eystan do to the

INTRODUCTION. XXV

The king was of age at twelve (iv. 118). A king of seven
years of age has twelve Regents chosen in the Moot, in one
case by lot (ix. 317), to bring him up and rule for him till his
majority (v. 121). Regents are all appointed in Denmark, in
one case for lack of royal blood (vii. 239), one to Scania, one
to Zealand, one to Funen, two to Jutland.1 Underkings (v.
160; ix. 308, 313) and Earls (v. 154) are appointed by kings,
and though the Earl's office is distinctly official, succession
is sometimes given to the sons of faithful fathers (iv. 107).
The absence of a settled succession law leads (as in Muslim
States) to rebellions and plots (i. 35).

Kings sometimes abdicated (iii. 75), giving up the crown
perforce to a rival (i. 10), or in high age to a kinsman (i. 18).
In heathen times, kings, as Thiodwulf tells us in the case of
Domwald and Yngwere ( Ynglingatal 4, 20), were sometimes
sacrificed for better seasons (African fashion), and Wicar of
Norway perishes, like Iphigeneia,to procure fair winds2 (vi. 184).
Kings having to lead in war, and sometimes being willing to
fight wagers of battle (v. 107), are short-lived as a rule, and
assassination is a continual peril, whether by tire at a time of
feast, of which there are numerous examples, besides the
classic one on which Biarca-mal is founded,3 and the not less
famous one of Hamlet's vengeance (see also Ynglingatal), or

Thronds." . So Eric's Chronicle tells, S. R. D. i. 151, how Athisl, King of
the Swedes, put up a dog-king named RacJce and a tax on the Danes, when
Rolf Crace was a boy, and when they slew the dog he put a shepherd
named Snow over them. The Annales Esromenses say the dog was killed
through trying to stop two dogs lighting. The smaller Swedish Rhyming
Chronicle, S. R. S. i. 254, says that Athisl did this to avenge himself for
the death of his kinsman, Harald Whiteleg, whom the Danes slew. Saxo
does not tell the whole story any more than Snorre.

1 Ragnar, like the Emperors Charles and Lewis, shares his realm
among his sons. In another case the example of Charles in crowning his
son in his lifetime is forestalled by a heathen king (i. 18), Sciold, who
hands over his realm to Gram.

2 The simulation of sacrifice in this case is interesting.

3 For the date and character of Biarca-mal and its connection with
Finn's Lay, see Emj. Hist. Rev. i. 512.

XXvi INTRODUCTION.

whether by steel, as with Hiartuar (ii. 67), or by trick, as in
Wicar's case above cited (vi. 184). The reward for slaying a
king is in one case 120 gold lbs. (viii. 265) ; the were-gild [cf.
Mill's were-gild, 80,000 pence, 0. E. Chronicle, s. a. 694], 12
" talents" of gold from each ringleader, 1 oz. of gold from each
commoner, in the story of Godfred, known as Ref 's gild, i.e.,
Fox tax (viii. 296-7). In the case of a great king, Frode, his
death is concealed for three years (v. 17 1) to avoid disturbance
within and danger from without. Captive kings were not as a
rule well treated. A Slavonic king, Daxo, offers Ragnar's son
Whitesark his daughter and half his realm, or death (ix. 311),
and the captive strangely desires death by fire. A captive
king is exposed, chained to wild beasts (vii. 22), thrown into a
serpent-pit (ix. 314),1 wherein Ragnar is given the fate of
the elder Gunnar in the Eddie Lays, Atlakvi^a, 120 ; Atlamal,
232 ; C. F. B. i, 50, 341). The king is treated with great
respect by his people, he is finely clad, and his commands are
carried out, however abhorrent or absurd, as long as they do
not upset customary or statute law. The king has slaves in
his household, men and women, besides his guard of house-
carles and his bearsark champions. A king's daughter has
thirty slaves with her, and the foot-maiden (iii. 80) existed
exactly as in the stories of the Wicked Waiting Maid. He
is not to be awakened in his slumbers (vii. 218) [cf. St. Olaf's
Life, where the naming of King Magnus is the result of
adherence to this etiquette]. A champion weds the king's
leman (vi. 181).

His thanes are created by the delivery of a sword, which
the king holds by the blade and the thane takes by the
hilt (ii. 67). [English earls were created by the girding
with a sword. "Taking treasure, and weapons and horses,
and feasting in hall with the king" (v. 138) is synonymous with
thane-hood or gesith-ship in Beowulf's Lay, 2633.] A king's
thanes must avenge him if he falls, and owe him allegiance
(vii. 254). [This was paid in the old English monarchies by

1 Giving captives to beasts to devour may have been induced by the
Roman practice.

INTRODUCTION. XXVII

kneeling and laying the head down at the lord's knee ;
as the beautiful passage in the Wanderer's Lay reminds us —

")>onne sorg and slrep somod jetgaedere
Earme anhogan oft gebinda'S,
Hnca$ him on mode >?et he his mondryhten
clyppe and cysse and on cneo lecge
honda and hedfod swa he hwilum ser
in geardagum gief stolas ureac. "

The trick by which the Mock-king, or King of the Beggars
[parallel to our Boy-bishop, and perhaps to that enigmatic
churls' King of the 0. E. Chronicle, s. a. 1017, Eadwi
ceorla-kyning] gets allegiance paid to him, and so secures
himself in his attack on the real king, is cleverly devised. The
king, besides being a counsel giver himself (iii. 70), and
speaking the law, has counsellors (vii. 232), old and wise
men, sapientes [like the O. E. pyle]. The aged warrior
counsellor, as Starcad here and Master Hildebrand in the
Nibelungenlied, is one type of these persons, another is the
false counsellor, as Woden in guise of Bruni, another the
braggart, as Hunferth in Beowulf's Lay, 499. At moots
where laws are made, kings and regents chosen, cases judged,
resolutions taken of national importance, there are discussions
(vii. 235), as in that armed most the host (ii. 47).

The king has, beside his estates up and down the country,
sometimes (like Hrothgar with his palace Heorot in Beowulf's
Lay) a great fort and treasure house, as Eormenric, whose
palace may well have really existed (viii. 278). There is often
a primitive and negroid character about dwellings of formidable
personages, heads placed on stakes adorn their exterior, or
shields are ranged round the walls.

The "provinces are ruled by removable earls appointed by
the king, often his own kinsmen, sometimes the heads of old
ruling families. The hundreds make up the province or sub-
kingdom (v. 144). They may be granted to king's thanes,
who became hundred-elders (ii. 64). Twelve hundreds are
in one case bestowed upon a man.

The yeomans estate is not only honourable but useful,

XXV111 INTRODUCTION.

as Starcad generously and truly acknowledges (vi. 198).
Agriculture should be fostered and protected by the king, even
at the cost of his life. The franklin with his riches in cattle
and treasure is shown in v. 128.

But gentle birth and birth royal place certain families
above the common body of freemen (landed or not) ; and for
a commoner to pretend to a king's daughter is an act of
presumption, and generally rigorously resented ; and the
disgust with which the giant or champion or smith, who
strives for a " lofty union", is received, is very clear (vii.
253, etc.).

The smith was the object of a curious prejudice, probably
akin to that expressed in St. Patrick's Lorica, and derived
from the smith's having inherited the functions of the savage
weapon-maker with his poisons and charms. The curious
attempt to distinguish smiths into good and useful sword-
smiths and base and bad goldsmiths (vi. 193) seems a merely
modern explanation : AVeland could both forge swords and
make ornaments of metal. Starcad's loathing for a smith
recalls the mockery with which the Homeric gods treat
Hephaistos.

The peddler, or mere tradesman (as distinct from the private
adventurer), was little esteemed (v. 128).

Slavery. — As noble birth is manifest by fine eyes and per-
sonal beauty (ii. 43), courage and endurance, and delicate
behaviour, so the slave nature is manifested by cowardice,
treachery (v. 134), unbridled lust, bad manners, falsehood, and
low physical traits (iii. 94) ; cf. The False Bride. Slaves had,
of course, no right either of honour, or life, or limb. Captive
ladies are sent to a brothel (ix. 301) ; captive kings cruelly
put to death. Born slaves were naturally still less considered,
they were flogged (ii. 43) ; it was disgraceful to kill them with
honourable steel (vii. 251); to accept a slight service from a
slaw-woman was beneath old Starcad's dignity (vi. 198). A
man who loved another man's slave-woman, and did base
service to her master to obtain her as his consort, was looked
down on (vi. 198). [Starcad and Balzac disagree here.] Slaves
frequently ran away to escape punishment for carelessness, or

INTRODUCTION. XXIX

fault (ii. 43), or to gain liberty. [Cf. the desperate Irish
slaves in Landnamaboc, and the slave in Beowulf's Lay who
robs the Dragon.] Slaves were freed in spite of Sciold's law
(i. 12), and the steps by which one, a captive, rose are given
viii. 276. First he was made reeve, a servile preferment, as
in England, though not unprofitable. Next he is given ser-
vice a-t court, being evidently (though this is not mentioned)
freed, and lastly he is admitted into the comitatus as gesith.
Bailiffs or serjeants-at-arms were probably almost always
freedmen (or perhaps, even as in the East, slaves), and loathed
accordingly, a prejudice to which their insolence of office no
doubt added (vi. 197).

2. — CUSTOMARY LAW.

The evidence of Saxo to archaic law and customary institu-
tions is pretty much (as wre should expect) that to be drawn
from the Icelandic Sagas, and even from the later Icelandic
riinur and Scandinavian kaempe-viser. But it helps to com-
plete the picture of the older stage of North Teutonic Law,
which we are able to piece together out of our various sources,
English, Icelandic, and Scandinavian. In the twilight of Yore
every glowworm is a help to the searcher.

There are a few Maxims of various times, but all seemingly
drawn from custom cited or implied by Saxo as authorita-
tive : —

The succession was appointed to king-slayers of old. — The
passage viii. 277 gives an additional citation for Mr. Frazer,
and shows that Voltaire was more right than he himself knew
when he ascribed royalty to a "lucky soldier".

It is disgraceful to be ruled by a woman (viii. 265). — The
great men of Teutonic nations held to this maxim. There is
no Boudicea or Maidhbh in our own annals till after the
accession of the Tudors, when Great Eliza rivals her elder kins-
women's glories. Though Tacitus expressly notices one tribe
or confederacy, the Sitones, within the compass of his Germania
{Germ. 45), ruled by a woman, as an exceptional case, it was
contrary to the feeling of mediaeval Christendom for a woman
to be emperor ; it was not till late in the Middle Ages that

XXX INTRODUCTION.

Spain saw a queen regnant, and France has never yet allowed
such rule. It was not till long after Saxo that the great
queen of the North, Margaret, wielded a wider sway than that
rejected by Gustavus' wayward daughter.

The suitor ought to urge his oivn suit (iii. 72). — This, an
axiom of the most archaic law, gets evaded bit by bit till the
professional advocate takes the place of the plaintiff. Nial's
Saga, in its legal scenes, shows the transition period, when, as
at Rome, a great and skilled chief was sought by his client as
the supporter of his cause at the Moot. In England, the
idea of representation at law is, as is well known, late and
largely derived from canon law practice.

To exact the blood-fine ivas as honourable as to take
vengeance (iv. 111). — This maxim, begotten by Interest upon
Legality, established itself both in Scandinavia and Arabia.
It marks the first stage in a progress which, if carried out
wholly, substitutes law for feud. In the society of the
heathen Danes the maxim was a novelty ; even in Christian
Denmark men sometimes preferred blood to fees.

Marriage. — There are many reminiscences of archaic mar-
riage customs in Saxo. The capture marriage (see p. xlii, Laws
of Frode, C. c) has left traces in the guarded king's daughters,
the challenging of kings to fight or hand over their daughters
(v. 24; vi. 222), in the promises to give a daughter or sister
as a reward to a hero who shall accomplish some feat (i. 31 ;
ii. 45 ; vii. 245). The existence of polygamy (iv. 104) is
attested, and it went on till the days of Charles the Great and
Harold Fairhair in singular instances, in the case of great
kings, and finally disappeared before the strict ecclesiastic
regulations.

But there are evidences also of later customs, such as
marriage by purchase, already looked on as archaic in Saxo's
day (viii. 275) ; and the free woman in Denmark had clearly
long had a veto or refusal of a husband for some time back
(v. 124), and sometimes even free choice (ii. 45). "Go-betweens"
negotiate marriages (iv. 123).

A betrothal gift of a lady to her betrothed (a sword) is
spoken of ii. 44. Betrothal was of course the usage (vi. 194).

INTRODUCTION. .XXXI

For the groom to defile an espoused woman is a foul reproach
(v. 160). Gifts made to father-in-law after bridal by bride-
groom (v. 125) seem to denote the old bride-price. Taking
the bride home in her car (ii. 45) was an important ceremony (cf.
Rigs Mai), and a bride is taken to her future husband's by her
father (v. 125). The wedding-feast, as in France in Rabelais'
time, was a noisy and drunken and tumultuous rejoicing,
when bone-throwing was in favour (ii. 56), with other rough
sports and jokes. The three days after the bridal and their
observance in " sword-bed" (ix. 319) are noticed below. Dowry
existed (v. 152-164; ix. 319).

A commoner or one of slave-blood could not pretend to
Lred a high-born lady (iv. 103 ; v. 122, 146, 147; vi. 198, 224 ;
vii. 242). A woman would sometimes require some proof of
power or courage at her suitor's hands ; thus (vii. 245)
Gywritha, like the famous lady who wed Harold Fairhair,
required her husband Siwar to be over-king of the whole
land. But in most instances the father or brother betrothed
the girl, and she consented to their choice (i. 13, 30 ; ii. 57 ; see
also G. C. P. 81). Unwelcome suitors perish (iv. 101 ; v. 126).

The prohibited degrees were, of course, different from
those established by the mediaeval church (ii. 52, 69), and
brother weds brother's widow (iii. 87) in good archaic fashion.
Foster-sister and foster-brother may marry, as Saxo notices
carefully (i. 13, 21 ; iii. 90). The Wolsung incest is not
noticed by Saxo. He only knew, apparently, the North-
German form of the Niflung story (see App. I). But the
reproachfulness of incest is apparent.

Birth and beauty were looked for in a bride by Saxo's
heroes (iv. 103), and chastity was required. The modesty of
maidens in old days is eulogised by Saxo (vii. 226), and the
penalty for its infraction was severe (vi. 19) : sale abroad into
slavery to grind the quern in the mud of the yard (vi. 193-8).
One of the tests of virtue is noticed vi. 193, lac in ubere.

That favourite motif, the Patient Grizzle, occurs vii. 227,
rather, however, in the Border ballad than the Petrarcan form.

Good ivives die with their husbands as they have vowed
(i. 27 ; iv. 106 ; vii. 234), or of grief for their loss (i. 52), and

XXXll- INTRODUCTION.

are wholly devoted to their interests. Among bad wives are
those that wed their husband's slayer (iv. 106), run away from
their husbands (ii. 55), plot against their husbands' lives
(ii. 46, .58). The penalty for adultery (viii. 280) is death to
both, at husband's option — disfigurement by cutting off the
nose of the guilty woman (ii. 58), an archaic practice widely
spread. In one case the adulterous lady is left the choice of
her own death (v. 138). Married women's Homeric duties are
shown v. 122.

There is a curious story (ii. 52), which may rest upon fact,
and not be merely typical, where a mother who had suffered
wrong forced her daughter to suffer the same wrong.

The wanton insolence of the youth about a king's court
towards women is illustrated v. 122.

Captive women are reduced to degrading slavery as harlots
(ix. 301) in one case, according to the eleventh century English
practice of Gytha. See also G. P. B. ii. 473-4 ; G. G. P. 50.

The Family and Blood Revenge. — This duty, one of the
strongest links of the family in archaic Teutonic society, has
left deep traces in Saxo. The supremacy of the obligation
(vi. 206) is enforced again and again by his characters. The
most imperative cases are, of course, for those nearest to one,
father (iii. 75, 96; iv. 110) ; brother or sister (ii. 53 ; viii. 280) ;
g randfather (ix. 301), when the grandson fulfils the duty.1

To slay those most close in blood, even by accident [cf.
Beowulf's Lay 2438], where Hsethcyn accidentally kills Here-
beald, is to incur the guilt of paricide, or kin-killing (ii. 51),
a bootless crime, which can only be purged by religious
ceremonies ; and which involves exile, lest the gods' wrath
fall on the land, and brings the curse of childlessness on the
offender until he is forgiven (vii. 247).

The artificial family ties created by fosterhood (i. 21) and by
sworn brotherJiood are as strong as those forged by nature ;
thus the foster-father is avenged iii. 82, and the affection
borne to a foster-father is noticed vi. 200.

1 One hears of isolated vows of vengeance (ii. 57), and of course the
obligation of a gesith to avenge his lord is fully acknowledged.

INTRODUCTION. XXX111

The vow of brotherhood is noticed i. 23 : v. 161.1
The classic passages where the ceremony of sworn brother-
hood by blood-mingling alluded to by Saxo is detailed are the
short Brunhild Lay (C. P. B. i. 308) :—

" Rememberest thou not Gunnere this clearly ;
How ye two both ran your blood in the print?"

and in Loka-senna (G. P. B. i. 102) : —

"Rememberest not, Woden, how we two in days of yore
Blent our blood together or in the print ?"

Sec also C. P. B. i. 423. for a full discussion of the Sao;a
evidence, especially Gisli's Saga and FostbraySra Saga, dis-
tinguishing between the blood-blending and the passing under
the yoke, which is incorrectly jumbled up with the other part
of the ceremony, standing under the turf arch together, an
obvious emblem.

The unpleasant position of the step-children and the
cruelty of the stepmother is a feature of Saxo's authorities as
of the brothers Grimm's fairy tales (ii. 42, 44).

The dutifulness of children is referred to, but there are
many examples of family quarrels : brother deposes brother
(i. 11); son rebels against father (ix. 311), and is forgiven;
grandson attacks grandfather (ix. 320), who laughs at the
young cockerel's spirit.

Bootless Crimes. — As among the ancient Teutons, botes
and were-gilds satisfy the injured who seek redress at law
rather than by the steel. But there are certain bootless
crimes, or rather sins, that imply sacratio, devotion to the
gods, for the clearing of the community.

Such are treason, which is punishable by hanging (iii. 95 ;
ix. 310), by drowning in sea (ii. 50) [cf. the custom of
London].

Rebellion is still more harshly treated by death and for-
feiture (ix. 305) ; the rebels' heels are bored and thonged under
the sinew, as Hector's feet were, and they are then fastened

1 Compensation, or were-gild, is obtained for a comrade (iii. 95).

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

by the thongs to wild bulls, hunted by hounds, till they are
dashed to pieces (viii. 272) (for which there are classic parallels),
or their feet are fastened with thongs to horses driven apart,
so that they are torn asunder. [Cf. Ganelon's punishment for
treason in the Chanson Roland.]

For paricide, i.e., killing within near degrees (ii. 51), the
criminal is hung up, apparently by the heels, with a live wolf
[he having acted as a wolf which will slay its fellows] (viii. 278).
Cunning avoidance of the guilt by trick is shown (viii. 280.)

For arson the appropriate punishment is the fire (iii. 82).

For incestuous adultery of stepson with his stepmother, in
the instance given viii. 280, hanging is awarded to the man.
In the same case Swanwhite, the woman, is punished by
treading to death with horses (viii. 280). A woman accom-
plice in adultery is treated to what Homer calls a " stone coat"
(v. 144). Incestuous adultery is afoul slur (ii. 54).

For ivitchcraft, the horror of heathens, hanging was the
penalty (v. 151).

Private revenge sometimes deliberately inflicts a cruel death
for atrocious wrong or insult, as when a king, enraged at the
slaying of his son and seduction of his daughter, has the
offender hanged (viii. 235-6), an instance famous in Nathan's
story, so that Hagbard's hanging and hempen necklace were
proverbial. For Hagbard (as for English highwaymen
centuries later) a parting cup was provided.

For the slayer by a cruel death of their captive father,
Ragnar's sons act the blood-eagle on Ella, and salt his flesh
(ix. 315). There is an undoubted instance of this act of
vengeance (the symbolic meaning of which is not clear as
yet) in the Orkney Saga.

But the story of Daxo (ix. 312) and of Ref's gild (viii. 297)
si iow that for such wrongs were-gilds (cf. that of Mul spoken
of above) were sometimes exacted, and that they were con-
si* Lered highly honourable to the exactor.

Among offences NOT bootless, and left to individual
pursuit, are : —

Highway robbery. — There arc several stories of a type such

INTRODUCTION. XXXV

as that of Ingemund and Iokul [see Landnamaboc] told
by Saxo (i. 17; vii. 251) of highwaymen; and an incident
of the kind that occurs in the Theseus story (the Bent-tree,1
which sprung back and slew the wretch bound to it) is given
vii. 242. The romantic trick of the mechanic bed, by which
a steel-shod beam is let fall on the sleeping traveller, occurs
viii. 274. Slain highwaymen are gibbeted as in Christian
days (vii. 252).

Assassination, as distinct from manslaughter in vengeance
for a wrong, is not very common. A hidden mail-coat
foils a treacherous javelin-cast (iv. 104), [cf. the Story of Olaf
the Stout and the Blind King, Hrorec, c. 1015, C. P. B. ii.
119] ; murderers lurk spear armed at the threshold sides, as in
the Icelandic Sagas (i. 32) ; a queen hides a spear-head in her
gown, and murders her husband (ix. 304), [cf. Olaf Trygg-
wesson's Life, ch. 78]. Godfred was murdered by his servant
(viii. 298, and Ynglingatal).

Burglary. — The crafty discovery of the robber of the
treasury (i. 27) by Hackling is a variant of the world-old
Rhampsinitos tale, but less elaborate, possibly abridged and
cut down by Saxo, and reduced to a mere moral example in
favour of the goldenness of silence and the danger of letting
the tongue feed the gallows.

Among other disgraceful acts, that make the offender
infamous, but do not necessarily involve public action : —

Manslaughter in Breach of Hospitality. — Probably any
gross breach of hospitality was disreputable and highly
abhorred, but guest- slaughter is especially mentioned vi. 213.
The ethical question as to whether a man should slay his
guest or forego his just vengeance was often a probleme du
jour in the archaic times to which these traditions witness.
Ingeld prefers his vengeance, but Thuriswend, in the Lay
cited by Paul the Deacon, chooses to protect his guest (C. P. B.
i. Hi). Heremod slew his messmates in his wrath, and went
forth alone into exile (Beowulf's Lay, 1710-23).

1 This may come ultimately from classic story, but such incidents occur
in barbaric life down to to-day.

XXXvi INTRODUCTION.

Suicide. — This was more honourable than what Earl Siward
of Northumberland called a " cow-death", as viii. 26 testifies.
Haddinir resolves to commit suicide at his friend's death (cf.
Vatzdaela Saga), i. 37. Wermund resolves to commit suicide
if his son be slain (in hopelessness of being able to avenge
him, cf. Nial's Saga, ch. 128, where the hero, a Christian,
prefers to perish in his burning house than live dishonoured,
" for I am an old man and little fitted to avenge my sons, but
I will not live in shame"). Persons commit suicide by slay-
ing each other in time of famine ; while in England (so
Baeda tells) they " decliffed" themselves in companies, and, as
in the comic little Icelandic tale of Gautrec's birth, a Tarpeian
death is noted as the customary method of relieving folks from
the hateful starvation-death, C. P. B. i. 410 ; ii. 354. It is
probable that the violent death relieved the ghost or the
survivors of some inconveniences which a " straw death" would
have brought about. Helge's suicide (ii. 53) is attributed to
remorse or disgrace, and beyond marking the conclusion of his
evil career satisfactorily, has probably little import.

Procedure by Wager of Battle. — This archaic process per-
vades Saxo's whole narrative. It is the main incident of
many of the sagas from which he drew. It is one of the
chief characteristics of early Teutonic custom-law, and along
with Cormac's Saga, Landnamaboc, and the Walter Saga, our
author has furnished us with most of the information we
have upon its principles and practice.

Steps in the process are the Challenge, the Acceptance
and Settlement of Conditions, the Engagement, the Treatment
of the vanquished, the Reward of the conqueror, and there are
rules touching each of these, enough almost to furnish a kind
of " Galway code".

A challenge could not, either to war or wager of battle, be
refused with honour (iv. 10G, 113), though a superior was not
bound to fight an inferior in rank (v. 124; vi. 180, 187). An
ally might accept for his principal (v. 161), or a father for a
son (iv. 113), but it was not honourable for a man unless
helpless to send a champion instead of himself (viii. 268).

INTRO I >1< "HON. XXXV11

Men were bound to fight one to one (viii. 222), and one
man might decline to fight two at once ; till Athisl's case (iv.
113. 114). Great champions sometimes fought against odds
(four, v. 8, ix. 307 ; one, v. 7, vii. 223 ; one, v. 9, vi. 195 ; two,
v. 12, v. 166 ; one, v. 12, vii. 243).

The challenged man chose the place of battle, and possibly
fixed the time (v. 138). This was usually an island, as in iv.
115, in the river.

The regular weapons were swords and shields1 for men of
gentle blood. They fought by alternate separate strokes ; the
senior had the first blow. The fio-ht must go on face to face
(vii. 254) without change of place ; for the ground was marked
out for the combatants, two adjacent rectangles \~\~\ as in our
prize ring seem intended in iv. 118, though one can hardly
help fancying that the \~E~\ so carefully described in Cormac's
Saga, ch. 10, may have been in Saxo's authority (see Oxford
Icelandic Reader). The combatants change places accidentally
in the struggle in one story (iv. 118).

The combat might last, like Cuchullin's with Ferclia, several
days ; a nine days' fight occurs (vii. 244) ; but usually a few
blows settled the matter. Endurance was important, and we
are told of a hero keeping himself in constant training by
walking in a mail coat (iv. 107).

The conqueror ought not to slay his man if he were a strip-
ling (v. 160), or maimed (vii. 224), and had better take his
were-gild for his life, the holmslausn or ransom of Cormac's
Saga (three marks in Iceland) ; but this was a mere concession
to natural pity, and he might without loss of honour finish
his man, and cut off his head (iv. 112), though it was proper,
if the slain adversary has been a man of honour, to bury him
afterward (iii. 86).

The stakes are sometimes a kingdom (viii. 281) or a king-
dom's tribute (iii. 83-5), often a lady, or the combatants fought
for " love" or the point of honour. Giants and noted cham-
pions challenge kings for their daughters (as in the fictitious

1 An eccentric single combat by artillery is related vi. 18.

XXXviii INTRODUCTION.

parts of the Icelandic family sagas) in true archaic fashion (i.
31), and in true archaic fashion the prince rescues the lady
from a disgusting and evil fate by his prowess.

The champion's fee or reward when he was fighting for his
principal and came off successful was heavy — many lands
and sixty slaves (vi. 188) [cf. the present given to Beowulf,
1021, 1818-88, and Grette, G. P. B. ii. 502, of horses, weapons,
etc.]. Bracelets are given him (iii. 85) ; a wound is compen-
sated for at ten gold pieces (iii. 8G) ; a fee for killing a king is
120 of the same.

Of the incidents of the combat beside fair sleight of fence,
there is the continual occurrence of the sword-blunting spell,
often cast by the eye of the sinister champion, and foiled by
the good hero, sometimes by covering his blade with thin skin,
sometimes by changing the blade, sometimes by using a mace
or club ; see below, No. 8. Magic.

The strength of this tradition sufficiently explains the
necessity of the great oath against magic taken by both
parties in a wager of battle in Christian England.

The chief combats mentioned by Saxo are : —

Sciold v. Attila (i. 11).

„ v. Scate (i. 12), for the hand of Alfhild.

Gram v. Swarin and eight more (i. 18), for the crown of the
Swedes.

Hadding v. Toste (i. 35), by challenge.

Frode v. Hunding (ii. 50), on challenge.
„ v. Hacon „ „

Helge v. Hunding (ii. 51), by challenge at Stad.

Agnar v. Bearce (ii. 56, 64), by challenge.

Wizard v. Danish champion (iii. 84), for truage of the Slavs.
v. Ubbe (iii. 85)

Coll v. Horwendill (iii. 86), on challenge.

Athisl v. Frowine (iv. 107), meeting in battle.
v. Ket and Wig (iv. 112), on challenge.

Ufte v. Prince of Saxony and Champion (iv. 116), by chal-
lenge

Km,!,, v. Froger (iv. 1 IS), on challenge. See ii. 50, also.

INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

Eric v. Grep's brethren (v. 139), on challenge, twelve a
side.

Eric v. Alrec (v. 161), by challenge.

Hedin v. Hogni (v. 160), the mythic everlasting battle.

Arngrim v. Scale (v. 165), by challenge.

„ v. Ecgtheow (v. 165), for truage of Permland.
Arrow-Odd and Hialmar v. twelve sons of Arngrim (v. 166)
Samsey fight.

Ane Bow-swayer v. Beorn (vi. 180), by challenge.
Starkad v. Wisin (vi. 188)

„ v. Tanne (vi. 188) „

„ v. Wasce = Wilzce (vi. 188) „
„ v. Hame (vi. 188) „

„ v. Angantheow and eight of his brethren (vi. 194),
on challenge.
Half dan v. Hardbone and six champions (vii. 223), on chal-
lenge.
v. Egtheow (vii. 223), by challenge.
v. Grim (vii. 223), on challenge.
v. Ebbe (vii. 224) „ by moonlight.

v. Twelve champions (vii. 245), on challenge.
v. Hildeger (vii. 244), on challenge.
Ole v. Skate and Hiale (vii. 254) „

Homod and Thole v. Beorn and Thore (viii. 268), by
challenge.

Ref. v. Gaut (viii. 296), on challenge.

Ragnar and three sons v. Starcad of Sweden and seven sons
(ix. 306), on challenge.

Civil Procedure. — Oaths are an important part of early
procedure, and noticed by Saxo ; one calling the gods to
witness and therefor, it is understood, to avenge perjury if he
spake not truth (viii. 283).

The sanctity of the oath appears iv. 101.

Testification, or calling witnesses to prove the steps of a

legal action, was known, Glum's Saga and Landn (iv. 13), and

when a manslayer proceeded (in order to clear himself of

murder) to announce the manslaughter as his act, he brings

\1 INTRODUCTION.

the dead man's head as his proof (iv. 112), exactly as the hero
in the folk-tales brings the dragon's head or tongue as his
voucher.

A will is spoken of vii. 224. This seems to be the solemn
declaration of a childless man to his kinsfolk, recommending
some person as his successor. Nothing more was possible
before written wills were introduced by the Christian clergy
after the Roman fashion.

3. — STATUTE LAWS.

Lawgivers.— The realm of Custom had already long been
curtailed by the conquests of Law when Saxo wrote, and some
epochs of the invasion were well remembered, such as Canute's
laws. But the beginnings were dim, and there were simply
traditions of good and bad lawyers of the past ; such were
Sciold first of all the arch-king, I rode the model lawgiver,
Helge the tyrant, Ragnar the shrewd conqueror.

Sciold, the patriarch, is made by tradition to fulfil, by
abolishing evil customs and making good laws, the ideal of
the Saxon and Frankish Coronation oath formula (which may
well go back with its two first clauses to heathen days). His
fame is as widely spread (i. 12), [cf. Beowulf's Lay, 11] : —

"... pret wres god cyning."

However, the only law Saxo gives to him has a story to
it that he does not plainly tell, Sciold had a freedman who
repaid his master's manumission of him by the ingratitude of
attempting his life. Sciold thereupon decrees the unlawfulness
of manumission, or (as Saxo puts it), revoked all manu-
missions, thus ordaining perpetual slavery on all that were or
might become slaves. The heathen lack of pity noticed in
Alfred's preface to Gregoiw's Handbook is illustrated here by
contrast with the philosophic humanity of the Civil Law, and
the sympathy of the mediaeval Church.

But Frode (known also to the compiler of Beowulf's Lay,
2025) had, in the Dane's eyes, almost eclipsed Sciold as
Conqueror and lawgiver. His name Frode almost looks as if

INTRODUCTION. xli

his epithet Sapiens had become his popular appellation, and it
befits him well. Of him were told many stories, and notably
the one related of our Edwin byBede (and as it has been told
by many men of many rulers since Bede wrote, and before).
Frode was able to hang up an arm-ring of gold in three parts
of his kingdom that no thief for many years dared touch
(v. 164, 169).1 How this incident (according to our version
preserved by Saxo, v. 169) brought the just king to his end is an
archaic and interesting story. Was this ring the Brosinga men ?

Saxo has even recorded the Laws of Frode in four separate
bits, which we give as A, B, C, D.

A. (v. 153) is mainly a civil and military code of archaic
kind :

(a) The division of spoil shall be — gold to captains, silver to
privates, arms to champions, ships to be shared by all. Cf.
Jomswickinga S. on the division of spoil by the law of the
pirate community of Jom.

(6) No house stuff to be locked ; if a man used a lock he
must pay a gold mark.

(d) The coward in battle is to forfeit all rights [cf. Beowulf,
2885].

(e) Women to have free choice [or, at least, veto] in taking
husbands.

(/) A free woman that weds a slave loses rank and freedom
[cf . Roman Law].

(g) A man must marry a girl he has seduced.

(h) An adulterer to be mutilated at pleasure of injured
husband.

(i) Where Dane robbed Dane, the thief to pay double and
]x 'ace-breach.

1 The bracelets were hung in Frodescrag and at Wick in Norway
(v. 164), as well as in Jutland (v. 169). There are very likely two stories
here ; they are inserted separately by Saxo. One story shows Frode's
complete control of the conquered realm of Norway, and is on a par with
other stories of the subjection of conquered provinces to the conqueror,
the other simply looks on Frode as the king that kept peace in Denmark.

xlii INTRODUCTION.

(k) Receivers of stolen goods suffer forfeiture and flogging at
most.

(I) Deserter bearing shield against his countrymen to lose
life and property.

(m) Contempt of fyrd-summons or call to military service
involves outlawry and exile.

(n) Bravery in battle to bring about increase in rank [cf. the
old English "Ranks of Men"].

(o) No suit to lie on promise and pledge ; fine of h gold lb.
for asking pledge.1

(p) Wager of battle is to be the universal mode of proof.

(q) If an alien kill a Dane two aliens must suffer. [This is
practically the same principle as appears in the half were-gild
of the Welsh in West Saxon Law.]

B. An illustration of the more capricious of the old enact-
ments and the jealousy of antique kings.

(a) Loss of gifts sent to the king involves the official
responsible ; he shall be hanged. [This is introduced as
illustration of the cleverness of Eric and the folly of Coll.]

C. Saxo associates another set of enactments (v. 156) with
the completion of a successful campaign of conquest over the
Ruthenians, and shows Frode chiefly as a wise and civilising
statesman, making conquest mean progress.

(a) Every free householder that fell in war was to be set in
his barrow with horse and arms [cf. Vatzdsela Saga, ch. 2] .

The body-snatcher was to be punished by death and the
lack of sepulture.

Earl or king to be burned in his own ship.

Ten sailors may be burnt on one ship.

(6) Ruthenians to have the same law of ivar as Danes.2

(c) Ruthenians must adopt Danish sale-marriage. [This
involves the abolition of the Baltic custom of capture-mar-
riage. That capture-marriage was a bar to social progress
appears in the legislation of our Richard II, directed against

1 Saxo explains this as intended to stop litigation.

2 It appears to be a war-law rather than merely the regulation of the
wager of battle or holmyamj that is meant here ; the text is ambiguous.

INTRODUCTION. xliii

the custom as carried out on the borders of the Palatine
county of Chester, while cases such as the famous one of Rob
Roy's sons speak to its late continuance in Scotland. In Ireland
it survived in a stray instance or two into this century, and
songs like " William Riley" attest the sympathy of the peasant
with the eloping couple.]

(e) A veteran, one of the Doughty, must be such a man
as will attack one foe, will stand two, face three without
withdrawing more than a little, and be content to retire only
before four. [One of the traditional folk-sayings respecting
the picked men, the Doughty or Old Guard, as distinguished
from the Youth or Young Guard, the new-comers in the king's
Company of House-carles.1 In Harald Hardrede's Life the
Norwegians dread those English house-carles, " each of whom is
a match for four", who formed the famous guard that won
Stamford Bridge and fell about their lord, a sadly shrunken
band, at Senlake.]

(/) The house-carles to have winter-pay. The house-carle
three pieces of silver, a hired soldier two pieces, a soldier who
had finished his service one piece.2

[The treatment of the house-carles gave Harald Harefoot
a reputation long remembered for generosity, and several old
Northern kings have won their nicknames by their good
or ill feeding and rewarding their comitatus.]

D. Again a civil code (v. 164), dealing chiefly with the rights
of travellers.

(a) Seafarers may use what gear they find [the " remis" of
the text may include boat or tackle].

River-owners may take the house next the ford, but to use
the house beyond the further bank was to involve death. [A
prae-pontine era is remembered.]

(b) No house is to be locked, nor coffer, but all thefts to be

1 In the O. E. poems we find the distinction of " iugo'S" and "dugo'S"
in the lord's " weorod", Andreas, 1124 ; Beow. 1674, etc.

2 This is not clear, nor Saxo's reason for objecting to it (v. 157). This
law evidently refers to circumstances such as might exist in the 12th or
11th centuries, hardly earlier.

xliv INTRODUCTION.

compensated threefold. [This, like A, b\ which it resembles,
seems a popular tradition intended to show the absolute
security of Frode's reign of seven (v. 104) or three hundred
years (v. 169). It is probably a gloss wrongly repeated.]

(a) A traveller may claim a single supper ; if he take more
he is a thief [the mark of a prae-tabemal era when hospitality
was waxing cold through misuse].

('/) Thief and accomplices are to be punished alike, being
hung up by a line through the sinews and a wolf fastened
beside. [This, which contradicts A, i, k, and allots to theft
the punishment proper for parricide, seems a mere distorted
tradition.]

But beside just Frode, tradition spoke of the unjust King
Helge, whose laws represent ill-judged harshness. They were
made for conquered races, (a) the Saxons (ii. 51) and (b) the
Swedes (ii. 53).

(a) Noble and freedmen to have the same were-gild [the
lower, of course ; the intent being to degrade all the conquered
to one level, and to allow only the lowest were-gild of a freed-
man, fifty pieces, probably, in the tradition.]

(b) No remedy for wrong done to a Swede by a Dane to be
legally recoverable. [This is the traditional interpretation of
the conqueror's haughty dealing ; we may compare it with the
Middle-English legends of the pride of the Dane towards the
conquered English. Tradition sums up the position in such
concrete form as this Law of Helge's.]

Two statutes of Ragnar are mentioned (ix. 304, 305): —

(a ) That any householder should give up to his service in war
the worst of his children, or the laziest of his slaves [a curious
tradition, and used by Saxo as an opportunity for patriotic
exaltation].

(b) That all suits should be absolutely referred to the judg-
ment of twelve chosen elders [Lodbroc here appearing in the
strange character of originator of trial by jury.]

Tributes. — Akin to laws are the tributes decreed and im-
posed by kings and conquerors of old. Tribute infers subjec-
tion in archaic law. The poll-tax in the fourteenth century

INTRODUCTION. xlv

in England was unpopular, because of its seeming to degrade
Englishmen to the level of Frenchmen, who paid tribute
like vanquished men to their absolute lord, as well as for
other reasons connected with the collection of the tax.

The old fur tax (mentioned in Egil's Saga) is here ascribed
to Frode, who makes the Finns pay him (v. 165), every three
years, a car full or sledge full of skins for every ten heads ;
and extorts one skin per head from the Perms (v. 165). It is
Frode, too (though Saxo has carved a number of Frodes
out of one or two kings of gigantic personality), that (vi. 182)
made the Saxons pay a poll-tax, a piece of money per head,
using, like William the Conqueror, his extraordinary revenue
to reward his soldiers, whom he first regaled with double pay.
But on the conquered folks rebelling, he marked their reduc-
tion by a tax of a piece of money on every limb a cubit long
(vi. 188), a " limb-geld" still more hateful than the " neb-geld".

Hotherus (HoSr) had set a tribute on the Kurlanders and
Swedes (ii. 83), and Hrolf laid a tribute on the conquered
Swedes (ii. 57).

Godefridus-Gotric is credited with a third Saxon tribute, a
heriot of 100 snow-white horses payable to each Danish king
at his succession, and by each Saxon chief on his accession :
a statement that, recalling sacred snow-white horses kept
in North Germany of yore, makes one wish for fuller in-
formation. But Godefridus also exacted from the Swedes the
Ref-gild, or Fox-money ; for the slaying of his henchman Ref,
twelve pieces of gold from each man of rank, one from every
commoner. And his Friesland tribute is stranger still, nor is
it easy to understand from Saxo's account. There was a long
hall built, 240 feet, and divided up into twelve " chases" of 20
feet each (probably square). There was a shield set up at
one end, and the taxpayers hurled their money at it ; if
it struck so as to sound, it was good ; if not, it was forfeit, but
not reckoned in the receipt. This (a popular version, it may
be, of some early system of treasury test) was abolished, so
the story goes, by Charles the Great (viii. 298).

Ragnar's exaction from Daxo, his son's slayer, was a yearly

xlvi INTRODUCTION.

tribute brought by himself and twelve of his elders barefoot
(ix. 312), resembling in part such submissions as occur in the
Angevin family history, the case of the Calais burgesses, and
of such criminals as the Corporation of Oxford, whose penance
was only finally renounced by the local patriots in our own
day.

4. — WAR.

Weapons. — The sword is the weapon par excellence in Saxo's
narrative, and he names several by name, famous old blades
like our royal Curtana, which some believed was once Tristrem's,
and that sword of Carlus, whose fortunes are recorded in
Irish annals. Such are Snyrtir, Bearce's sword (ii. 64) ;
Hothing, Agnar's blade (ii. 64) ; Lauf, or Leaf, Bearce's sword1
(ii. 56); Screp, Wermund's sword, long buried and much rust-
eaten, but sharp and trusty, and known by its whistle (iv.
115); Miming's sword [Mistiltoe], which slew Balder (iii. 71).
Wainhead's curved blade seems to be a halbert (i. 27)2 ; Lyus-
ing and Hiviting, Kagnald of Norway's swords (vii. 243) ;
Logthe, the sword of Ole Siward's son (vii. 254).3

Teutonic swords are spoken of, German blades. The Eddie
heroes' blades came from Gaul, as Hornclofe witnesses in
Eavensong, 67, G. P. B. i. 258, or Germany, C. P. B. i. 387, or
Russia, G. P. B. i. 187. Sword-forging occurs iv. 115, and
sword-scouring vi. 199.

Good fencing (i. 12 ; vii. 250) and tricks of fence, as well as
swashing blows, are noticed ; cf. Bearca-mal.

1 The fate of Bearce's sword is told in Landudmaboc, iii. 2, i. 2 : —
" Midfrith-Scegge, he was a great warrior and traveller. He harried in
the East Way (Baltic), and lay in Denmark off Zealand ; he was pitched
on by lot to break the barrow of King Hrolf Crace, and he took out of it
Scoprung, the sword of Hrolf, and the ax of Healte, and much other riches.
But he could not get Leaf, for Beadwere [who stands for Saxo's ' Bearce']
was ready to make at him ; but King Hrolf defended him." Saxo does not
know of Angantheow's sword Tyrfing, nor of Sigfred's Gram, nor of
Scrymir, or Bri'mir. See C. P. B. ii. 701.

2 The story is ill- told. Wainhead does nothing. He ought to help
Hadding or hinder Asmund in some way.

! The stratagem of hiding swords in staves hollowed (vii. 254) is also
found in Japan.

INTRODUCTION. xlvii

Axes are mentioned ii. 64, but are mostly ignored.

The war-clwb occurs pretty frequently (viii. 219, 222, 243).
But it is usually introduced as a special weapon of a special
hero, who fashions a gold-headed club (i. 17) to slay one
that steel cannot touch, or who tears up a tree, like the
Spanish knight in the ballad, or who uses a club to counter-
act spells that blunt steel. The bat-shapen archaic rudder
of a ship-, is used as a club in the story of the Sons of
Arngrim.

The sjiear plays no particular part in Saxo : even Woden's
spear Gungne is not prominent (ix. 314).

Boivs and arroivs are not often spoken of, but archer heroes,
such as Toki (App. I), Ane Bow-swayer, and Orwar-Odd, are
known. Slings (viii. 261) and stones (viii. 281) are used.

The shield, of all defensive armour, is far the most promi-
nent (iii. 102, 114). They were often painted with devices,
such as Hamlet's shield (iv. 101), Hildiger's Swedish shield
(vii. 244). Dr. Vigfusson has (see C. P. B. ii. 701, resuming an
earlier publication) shown the importance of these painted
shields in the poetic history of the Scandinavians (0. P. B. ii. 4).

A red shield is a signal of peace (iii. 71). Shields are set
round ramparts on land (viii. 281) as round ships at sea.

Mail-coats are worn. Frode has one charmed against steel
(ii. 41). Hother has another (iii. 73) ; a mail-coat of proof
is mentioned (iv. 119 ; viii. 281) ; their iron meshes are spoken
of ii. 64 [cf. C. P. B. ii. 482-4]. A hero Harold fights without
his mail-coat [cf. Harold Hardrede's Song at Stamford Bridge,
as told in his Life] (i. 26 ; vii. 2491).

Helmets are used (ii. 64), but not so carefully described as
in Beowulf's Lay ; crested helmets and a gilded helmet (i. 14 ;
ii. 60) occurs in Bearca-mal and in another poem.

Banners served as rallying points in the battle and on the
march. The Huns' banners are spoken of in v. 157, the
classic passage for the description of a huge host invading
a country. Bearca-mal talks of golden banners.

1 The incident of mail-coat burst by the strength or emotion of a hero
occurs iv. 114, as in Egil's Saga, and the lacing of the sundered rings on
the left-side shows a practical knowledge of arms.

xlviii I NT RODUCTIOX.

Horns1 were blown up at the beginning of the engagement
(viii. 262), and for signalling (v. 149). The gathering of the
host was made by delivery of a ivooden arrow painted to look
like iron (v. 153).

'Tactics. — The hand-to-hand fight of the wager of battle
with sword and shield, and the lighting in ranks and the
wedge-column at close quarters, show that the close infantry
combat was the main event of the battle. The preliminary
hurling of stones, and shooting of arrows, and slinging of
pebbles, were harassing and annoying, but seldom sufficiently
important to affect the result of the main engagement.

Men ride to battle, but fight on foot ; occasionally an aged
king is car-borne to the fray, and once the car, whether by
Saxo's adorning hand, or by tradition, is scythe-armed (viii.
26:]).

The gathered host is numbered, once, where, as with Xerxes,
counting was too difficult, by making each man as he passed
put a pebble in a pile (which piles survive to mark the huge
size of Frode's army). This is, of course, a folk-tale, explaining
the pebble-hills and illustrating the belief in Frode's power :
but armies were mustered by such expedients of old. Burton
tells of an African army each man of which presented an egg}
as a token of his presence and a means of taking the number
of the host (v. 154, 155, 157).

We hear of men marching in light order without even scab-
bards (vii. 238), and getting over the ice in socks (vii. 229).

The war equipment and habits of the Irish (v. 169), light
armoured, clipped at back of head, hurling the javelin back-
wards in their feigned flight; of the Slavs (viii. 258), small
blue targets and long swords ; of the Finns (v. 165), with their
darts and skees, are given.

Watches are kept, and it is noted that il uht", the early
watch (v. 130) after midnight, is the worst to be attacked in
(the duke's two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage being needed,

1 A horn and a tusk of great size are described as tilings of price, and
great uroch's horns are mentioned in Thorkill's Second Journey. Horns
were used for feast as well as fray.

INTRODUCTION.

XllX

a n ' 1 the darkness and cold helping the enemy), cf. Beowulf's
uht-scea3a and uht-floga, 2272, 2701.

Spies were, of course, slain if discovered (iii. 92). But we
have instances of kings and heroes getting into foeman's camps
in disguise (cf. stories of Alfred and Anlaf).

The order of battle of Bra valla fight (viii. 261) is given, and
the ideal array of a host (viii. 24cS). To Woden is ascribed the
device of the boar's head, hamalt fylking (the swine-head array
of Manu's Indian kings), the terrible column with wedge head
which could cleave the stoutest line (i. 30; i. 67 ; viii. 261).

Narrow columns, four files front, were used in difficult
and close places [cf. Egil's Saga and Nial's Saga] (viii. 289).

The array at Bravalla fight, c. 775, may thus be drawn for
both armies: —

Slimiers.

Left J lorn.

Right flank.

Leso.

Hetha.

Van.

Wedge main

Ole.

body.

Main body.

Regnald.

Brune.

Curlanders

Wivill.

Wisna.

and

Ubbe.

Esthonians.

Right horn.

Left flank.

Yngwe.

Hacon.

Sons of Alrec

lost.

Tryggwe.

(Swedes, Goths, and Norwe-
gians, and E. Baltic folk.)

Harold's Host.

(Danes and Frisians, and

S. Baltic Slavs.)

The host of Ring has men from Wener, Wermland, Gota-elf,
Thotn, Wick, Thelemark, Throndham, Sogn, Firths, Fialer,
Iceland ; Sweden, Gislamark, Sigtun, Upsala, Pannonia.

The host of Harold had men from Iceland, the Danish
provinces, Frisia, Lifland ; Slavs, and men from Jom, Aland,
and Sleswick.

The battle is said to have been won by the Gotland archers
and the men of Throndham, and the Dales. The death of
Harald by treachery completed the defeat, which began when

1 INTRODUCTION.

Ubbe fell (after he had broken the enemy's van) riddled with
arrows.

It is a pity we only have faint traditions of an event that
had much to do to shape Scandinavian history.

Descriptions of battle occur plentifully, but are not often
minute (ii. 61, 63; vii. 252). The three days' battle of Eormenric
(viii. 279), and the seven days long Hun bittle, the Cata-
launian struggle (v. 159), are noticed.

The defeated, unless they could fly, got little quarter. One-
fifth only of the population of a province are said to have
survived an invasion (v. 164). After sea-battles (always
necessarily more deadly) the corpses choke the harbours
(v. 156). Seventy sea-kings are swept away in one sea-fight
(cf. Hafursfirth, Hornklofe's Ravensong, lines 50-70 ; C. P. B. i.
258-9), vii. 255. Heads seem to have been taken in some cases,
but not as a regular Teutonic usage (iv. 112), and the practice,
from its being attributed to ghosts and aliens, must have
already been considered savage by Saxo, and probably by his
informants and authorities.

Prisoners were slaves ; they might be killed, put to cruel
death, outraged, used as slaves, but the feeling in favour of
mercy was growing, and the cruelty of Eormenric, who used
tortures to his prisoners (viii. 278), of Rothe, who stripped
his captives (vii. 242), and of Fro, who sent captive ladies to
a brothel in insult, is regarded with dislike.

Wounds were looked on as honourable, but they must be in
front or honourably got. A man who was shot through the
buttocks, or wounded in the back, was laughed at and disgraced
(vii. 247). We hear of a mother helping her wounded son out
of battle (vii. 247).

That much of human interest centred round war is evident
by the mass of tradition that surrounds the subject in Saxo,
both in its public and private aspects. Quaint is the analysis
of the four kinds of warriors (iv. 109) : (d) The Veterans, or
Doughty, who kill foes and spare flyers; (b) the Young men
who kill foes and flyers too ; (c) the well to do, landed, and
propertied men of the main levy, who neither fight for fea]

INTRODUCTION. li

nor fly for shame ; (d) the worthless, last to fight and first
to fly ; and curious are the remarks about married and un-
married troops (vii. 216), a matter which Chaka pondered over
in later days. Homeric speeches precede the fight (viii. 261).

Stratagems of War greatly interested Saxo (probably because
Valerius Maximus, one of his most esteemed models, was much
occupied with such matters), so that he diligently records the
military traditions of the notably skilful expedients of famous
commanders of old.

There is the device for taking a town by means of the
pretended death of the besieging general, a device ascribed to
Hastings and many more commanders [see Steenstrup Nor-
mannerne] (ii, 41, 511) ; the plan oi firing a besieged town by
fire-bearing birds (i. 24; i. 61 ; ii. 41; iv. 119), ascribed here
to Fridlev, in the case of Dublin to Hadding against Duna
(where it was foiled by all tame birds being chased out of the
place) (ii. 41).

There is the Birnam Wood stratagem, by which men
advance behind a screen of boughs (vii. 238), which is even
used for the concealment of ships (v. 150), and the curious
legend (occurring in Irish tradition also, and recalling Capt. B.
Hall's " quaker gun" story) by which a commander bluffs off
his enemy by binding his dead to stakes in rows, as if they
were living men (iv. 105, 130).

Less archaic devices are the stratagems borrowed from the
chace, the calthrops (still largely used in transgangetic warfare
(v. 169 ; vi. 18 ; viii. 272), with the proper counterplan of
using wooden clogs or soles. The Irish and Ruthenians are
cited for the use of calthrops. The covered pit (so famous
with us since Bannockburn) is used by the great general
Frode (ii. 39), to whom also is ascribed a feat performed on
the sea by our Alfred in 896, the lowering of a river by
trenches (ii. 40).

1 Dado, whom S*xo knew of, tells the story of Hastings at Luna.
William the Appulian tells it of Duke Robert in Calabria, Snorre of Harald
Hardrede in Sicily, H. H. Saga, ch. 10.

d 2

Hi INTRODUCTION.

Successful ambushes are mentioned iii. 83, and ix. 321, and
blockade ii. 39.

Devices to check pursuit repeatedly occur, from the far-
famed plan of engaging the victorious enemy over the loot left
purposely in his way (which is as old as Atalanta) (ii. 47, 53),
to the obvious incident of scuttling enemies' and pursuers'
vessels1 (i. 34 ; ii. 41 ; v. 131, 141).

The trick by which Fauconberg exhausted the Lancastrian
quivers at Towton was known (iii. 71), and the result secured
(ii. 46).

Less easy to understand are the brazen horses or machines
driven into the close lines of the enemy to crush and open
them, an invention of Gewar (ix. 308). The use of hooked
weajoons to pull down the foes' shields and helmets was also
taught to Hother by Gewar.2

The plan (for defensive and offensive purposes) of locking
shields seems to be noticed, but the phrases used seem some-
times to imply no more than a " shield wall", that is, a rank of
men standing or moving in a line.

The use of black tents to conceal encampment (v. 167) ; the
defence of a pass by hurling rocks from the heights (vii. 220) ;
the bridge of boats across the Elbe (iv. 118); and the employ-
ment of spies, and the bold venture, ascribed in our chronicles
to Alfred and Anlaf, of visiting in disguise the enemy's camp,
is here attributed to Frode, who even assumed women's clothes
for the purpose (ii. 41).

Frode is throughout the typical general, as he is the typical
statesman and law-giver of archaic Denmark.

There are certain heathen usages connected with war, as
the hurling of a javelin or shooting of an arrow over the
enemy's ranks as a sacratio to Woden of the foe at the
beginning of a battle (i. 32). This is recorded in the older
vernacular authorities also (G. P. B. i, 425), in exact accord-
ance with the Homeric usage, Od. xxiv, 516-525.

1 The parallel with the Golden Yanitee ballad is notable (v. 131).
! Thero was a Welsh tradition that the Picts used hooks to pull the
guard oft' the Roman Wall.

INTRODUCTION. Hii

The dedication of part of the spoils to the god who gave
good omens for the war is told of the heathen Baltic peoples,
cf. Appendix III ; but though, as Sidonius records, it had once
prevailed among the Saxons, and, as other witnesses add,
among the Scandinavian peoples, the tradition is not clearly
preserved by Saxo.

Sea and Sea Warfare. — As might be expected, there is much
mention of Wicking adventure and of maritime warfare in
Saxo (iv. 117; v. 141 ; vii. 249; viii. 266).

Saxo tells of Asmund's huge ship [Gnod], built high that he
might shoot down on the enemy's craft (viii. 266) ; he speaks
of a ship (such as Godwin gave as a gift to the king his master),
and the monk of St. Bertin and the court-poets have lovingly
described a ship with gold broidered sails, gilt masts, and red-
dyed rigging (vi. 1941). One of his ships has, like the ships in the
Chansons de Geste, a carbuncle for a lantern at the masthead
(viii. 293). Hedin signals to Frode by a shield at the mast-
head (v. 158) [cf. G. P. B. i. 135 ; ii. 155, 177]. A red shield
was a peace signal, as noted above. The practice of " strand-
hewing", a great feature in Wicking-life (which, so far as
the victualling of raw meat by the fishing fleets, and its
use raw, as Mr. P. H. Emerson informs me, still survives), is
spoken of v. 131. [Cf. the Eddie Lays, Lay of Helgi and
Cara, C. P. B. i. 149.] Vessels were lashed together at night for
safety at anchor, as at Sluys (iv. 119). There was great fear
(viii. 287) [cf. C. P. B. i. Lay of Atle and Rimegerd] of
monsters attacking them, a fear probably justified by such
occasional attacks of angry whales as Melville (founding his
narrative on repeated facts) has immortalised. The whales,
like Moby Dick, were uncanny, and inspired by troll-women
or witches [cf. Frithiof Saga and the older Lay of Atle and
Rimegerd]. The clever sailing of Hadding, by which he eludes
pursuit, is tantalising (i. 32), for one gathers that Saxo knows
the details that he for some reason omits. Big fleets of 150, and
a monster armada of 3,000 vessels are recorded (vii. 255 ; viii).

1 A ship called Scroter is given as a name-gift (v. 128) ; ships are docked
(v. 150) ; bilge-water is noticed (vii. 212) ; baling with pitchers (v. 131).

liv INTRODUCTION.

The ships were moved by oars and sails ; they had rudders,
no doubt such as the Gokstad ship, for the hero Arrow-Odd
uses a rudder as a weapon v. 166.

Champions. — Professed fighting men were often kept by
kings and earls about their court as useful in feud and fray.
Harald Fairhair's champions are admirably described in the
contemporary Raven Song by Hornclofe —

" Wolf-coats they call them that in battle
Bellow into Moody shields.
They wear wolves' hides when they come into the fight,
And clash their weapons together."1

and Saxo's sources adhere closely to this pattern.

These bear-sarks, or wolf-coats of Harold gave rise to an
0. N. term, " bear-sarks' way", to describe the frenzy of fight
and fury which such champions indulged in, barking and
howling, and biting their shield-rims [like the ferocious
" rook" in the narwhale ivory chessmen in the British
Museum] (v. 135 ; vi. 195 ; vii. 221, 223) till a kind of state was
produced akin to that of the Malay when he has worked
himself up to " run a-muck". There seems to have been in
the 10th century a number of such fellows about unemployed,
who became nuisances to their neighbours by reason of their
bullying and highhandedness. Stories are told in the Ice-
landic sagas of the way such persons were entrapped and put
to death by the chiefs they served when they became too
troublesome. A favourite (and fictitious) episode in an "edited"
Icelandic saga is for the hero to rescue a lady promised to
such a champion (who has bullied her father into consent) by
slaying the ruffian. It is the same motif as Guy of Warwick
and the Saracen lady, and one of the regular Giant and Knight
stories (vii. 253).

Beside men-warriors there were ivomen-warriors in the
North, as Saxo explains, iii. 87 [cf. G. P. B. ii. 469, 474]. He
describes shield-maidens, as Alfhild, vii. 230; Sela, ii. 87; Rusila,

1 C. P. B. i. 257, where the text must be emended from Volsunga
Sag*, ch. 9, paraphrasing the poem.

INTRODUCTION. lv

iv. 119 (the Ingean Ruadh, or Red Maid of the Irish Annals,
as Steenstrup so ingeniously conjectures), ix. 301 ; and the
three she-captains, Wigbiorg, who fell on the field, Hetha, who
was made queen of Zealand, and Wisna, whose hand Starcad
cut off, all three fighting manfully at Bravalla fight (viii.
2.57-8).1

5. — SOCIAL LIFE AND MANNERS.

Feasts. — The hall-dinner was an important feature in the
old Teutonic court-life. Many a fine scene in a saga takes
place in the hall while the king and his men are sitting over
their ale. The hall decked with hangings, with its fires, lights,
plate, and provisions (v. 167), appears in Saxo just as in the
Eddie Lays, especially Rigsmal, G. P. B. i. 234, 514, and the
Lives of the Norwegian Kings and Orkney Earls.

The order of seats is a great point of archaic manners (vi.
200). [Cf. the sharing of the game, and the award of the
champion's bit in the Irish tales of Bricrind's Feast, etc.]
Behaviour at table (iii. 93) was a matter of careful observance.
The service, especially that of the cup-bearer (iii. 95), was
minutely regulated by etiquette. An honoured guest was
welcomed by the host rising to receive him and giving him a
seat near himself (ix. 306), but less distinguished visitors
were often victims to the rough horseplay of the baser sort,
and of the wanton young gentlemen at court (v. 125, 135).
The food was simple, boiled beef and pork, and mutton without
sauce, ale served in horns2 from the butt. Roast meat, game,
sauces, mead, and flagons set on the table, are looked on by
Starcad as foreign luxuries (vi. 210), and Germany was credited
(strangely enough to our ideas) with luxurious cookery (vi.
201). Angelica is mentioned as a Scandinavian dainty i. 31.

Games. — Warriors loved athletic sports, such as leaping,
running, shooting, putting the stone (v. 129), and regular
games were held. Bodily skill and power were (as they right-
fully should be) in high account ; men cultivated ambi-

1 Women fight beside men vii. 239 cf. the Irish Cain Adamnain.

2 The great ox's horns are mentioned v. 168, and gold-hooped ale stoups.

lvi INTRODUCTION.

dexterity (as did afterward Olaf Tryggwesson), swimming,
swordsmanship (v. 124). as well as boxing and music (iii. 69)
[cf. § 1, xxiv. n.\

Trials of strength by tugging at a rope-ring for a stake (v.
140) are mentioned, and the staking of a reward is noticed
iii. 85. Wrestling is only incidentally noted.

Gambling at sea with dice is mentioned i. 34, and Toste is
spoken of as a gambler and thief. One remembers Joinville
and the anger of St. Louis when he caught his brothers
gambling at sea.

Mimes and jugglers (v. 185), who went through the country
or were attached to the lord's court to amuse the company,
were a despised race because of their ribaldry, obscenity,
cowardice, and unabashed self-debasement ; and their new-
fangled dances and piping were loathsome to the old court-
poets, who accepted the harp alone as an instrument of
music.

The story that once a king went to war with his jugglers
and they ran away (vi. 186), would represent the point of
view of the old house-carle, who was neglected, though ' a first-
class fighting-man', for these debauched foreign buffoons.

A curious feature of the old life was the game of man-
matching, which often led to unpleasantness [cf. Sigurd the
Crusader's Life, where the classic example of this sport is
seen]. Two men set up their favourite heroes, usually living-
persons, one against the other, and endeavour each to praise
his chosen and vilify or belittle the choice of the opponent.
Two kings are pitted against one another as to generosity here
(viii. 296). This game might be played for a stake.

Another remarkable archaic exercise was tongue-play or
fly ting, where two persons, either for pleasure or for a stake,
fall to abusing each other, asking mocking questions and
receiving insulting replies. Sometimes the captains of the
forecastles of heroes' ships will engage each other, like two
bargees. This Homeric pastime is frequent in the Eddie poems
[G P.B. i. 78, 138, 351, 352]. In Saxo there is an example of
a man and woman scolding for a stake (v. 140). The well-

INTRODUCTION. lvii

developed taste for this is still abundantly manifest in the
Flytings of Dunbar.

Gluttony is reprobated (vi. 189) at the king's court.

Quarrels rose at banquets, whether bridals, arvals, or ordi-
nary Yule or autumn feasts (as the Lombard Lay paraphrased
by Paul shows), and fights took place (ii. 50). Feasts were
too often deadly to the feasters, as foemen would choose the
opportunity to attack them by fraud or force (ii. 60 ; v. 168 ;
vi. 189).

The ugly, but old habit of bone-throwing after the feast,
when the liquor was in men's heads, led more than once
to bloodshed. The famous episode in Hrolf's Saga is described
by Saxo ii. 56. It was at the bone- thro wing after a feast
that the English Archbishop Elfheah (Elphege) was martyred,
as his Life records. Homer knew the practice, and Ktesippos,
the son of Polytherses, got a spear-blade as a return for the
oxfoot he had hurled at Odusseus. Od. xx. 287, 319, and xxii.
284-291.

The temple-feast at Upsala occurs vi. 185, and in Appendix
I is an account of the service at the heathen Baltic temples
in Saxo's own days.

Bragging, that is, making vows over the cup before the
company to fulfil some adventure or to do some deed of note,
was not uncommon (ii. 60), and brought men to death or
glory. Foolish and extravagant vows elsewhere than at table
are also noticed. A hero vows to drink his own blood before
he flies (iv. 108); Guthrum vows to slay anyone who tells
him of his son's death [cf. David and the messenger that
brought him news of Saul's death and Jonathan's, 2 Sam. i]
(ix. 321). A hero vows to get into the company of an enemy
without his knowledge (v. ' 128). The classic examples of
B rage-toasts are those connected with the Wickings of Jom.
See Jomsvikinga Saga, and C. P. B. i. 404-5.

Riddles, descriptions in veiled language, with puns, are evi-
dently greatly admired (v. 136), as among primitive peoples
and children generally.

Dress. — The dandy's dress is described vi. 189, and a king's

lviii INTRODUCTION.

dress vii. 248. Ladies' dresses are not much noticed. Cloaks
of fur, and hats for travellers, are known. Fur is a luxury.
A headband of broidery of great beauty (vi. 202). The
hangings of the hall at great feasts are of fine broidered stuff"
(iii. 92).

Jewellery. — Fine rings of gold (ii. 62), a noble necklace of
bracteates with kings' heads on them (v. 123), chests full of
rino-s and gold and silver belono-ino- to kings are mentioned
ii. 02. The noblest of all jewels, the Brisinga-Men [cf.
Beowulf, 1199), is given by Athisl to Hrolf (ii. 55). Men hid
their treasures in the earth for safety (iv. 128). Kings have
hoards and dispense them, and are buried with treasures.
Dragons guard hidden treasures (whether as metamorphosed
owners is not noted), and treasures are thrown into the sea to
keep them from a conqueror (ii. 41). One recalls the fate of
the Niebelungen Hoard, which Gunnar casts into the Rhine, as
the noblest verses of the old Lay of Attila (106-110) proudly

boast : —

" Rin seal raSa rog-malmi scatna,
f suinn as-cunnat arfi Hniflunga :
l uellanda uatrin lysisc ual-bauga
heldr an a hondom goll sci'ni Hiina bornom."1

Swords and arms, dress, plate and rings of metal adorned
with jewels and fine twisted work and coloured, made up the
hoards which we know, as well from excavations as from the
old authorities [Beowulf, 2744-2815]. The belief that gems
could give light (as some can) was held (viii. 293).

The Ghace. — A stag is hunted and slain by the sword
(ii. 64). We hear of fighting dogs (a probably old tradition
from the days when fierce large hounds guarded waggon and
house) (vii. 179). The chace is utilitarian, for food and fur
and feather. The Finn and Perm hunters and trappc rs, and

1 Emended version, which may be rendered : —

'Rhine shall rule over the heroes' feud-metal,
The river enjoy the heir-looms of the Hnifluiigs,
In the rolling water the fair rings shall be gleaming,
Sooner than gold shine on the hands of the sons of the Huns."

INTRODUCTION. lix

their fur trade (noticed by Ohthere in King Alfred's day, and
spoken of in Egil's Saga), is connected here with the name
of Frode.

The use of skees or snow-skates is marked as a Finnish
accomplishment (viii. 272 ; ix. 309).

Name-gifting. — This usage occurs ii. 57, and v. 128. Eric
gets the ship Scroter to fasten his name of Eloquent or
Speech- wise upon him.

Writing. — This is mentioned, as well as tokens, iii. 90.
See also reference in Preface to rock-runes. [The Eddie Lays
speak of letters and tokens also, cf. Grunland, Lay of Attila,
C. P. B. i. 332-5, with the older Atla-kvi3a, C. P. B. i. 46].
Letters are graven on wood (iii. 92), and messages so written
are stolen and altered (as the old token-messages used to be),
iv. 102.

6.— SUPERNATURAL BEINGS.

Gods and Goddesses. — The gods spring, according to Saxo's
belief, from a race of sorcerers, some of whom rose to pre-
eminence and expelled and crushed the rest, ending the
wizard-age, as the wizards had ended the monster or giant-
age. That they were identic with the classic gods he is
inclined to believe, but his difficulty is that in the week-da}rs
we have Jove : Thor : : Mercury : Woden ; whereas it is
perfectly well known that Mercury is Jove's son, and also
that Woden is the father of Thor — a comic embarras. That
the persons the heathens worshipped as gods existed, and
that they were men and women false and powerful, Saxo
plainly believes (i. 20 ; vi. 183). He has not Snorre's appre-
ciation of the humorous side of the mythology. He is ironic
and scornful, but without the kindly, naive fun of the Ice-
lander.

The most active god, the Dane's chief god (as Frey is the
Swede's god, viii. 260, and patriarch), is Woden. He appears
in heroic life as patron of great heroes and kings. Cf.
Hyndla-Lay (4-8 G. P. B. i. 227 ; ii. 515), where it is said of
Woden ; —

lx INTRODUCTION.

" Let us pray the Father of Hosts to be gracious to us !
He granteth and giveth gold to his servants,
He gave Heremod a helm and mail-coat,
And Sigmund a sword to take.

He giveth victory to his sons, to his followers wealth,
Ready speech to his children and wisdom to men,
Fair wind to captains, and song to poets ;
He giveth luck in love to many a hero."

He appears under various disguises and names, but usually
as a one-eyed old man, cowled and hooded (iii. 78) ; some-
times with another, bald and ragged, as before the battle
Hadding won (i. 29)1; once as Hroptr, a huge man skilled
in leechcrai't (ix. 304, and iii. 79), to Ragnar's son Sigfrid.

Often he is a helper in battle or doomer of feymen. As
Lysir, a rover of the sea, he helps Hadding (i. 242). As veteran
slinger and archer he helps his favourite Hadding (i. 323) ; as
charioteer, Brune, he drives Harald to his death in battle (vii.
255 ; viii. 258). He teaches Hadding how to array his troops
(i. 32). As Yggr the prophet he advises the hero and the gods
(v. 158). As Wecha [Wacr] the leech he woos Wrinda (iii. 804).
Be invented the wedge array. He can grant charmed lives to
his favourites against steel (vii. 247). He prophesies their
victories and death (i. 30). He snatches up one of his
disciples, sets him on his magic horse that rides over seas in
the air, as in Skida-rima the god takes the beo-oar over the
North Sea (i. 24, 255). His image (like that of Frey in the
Swedish story of Ogmund dytt and Gunnar helming, Flatey
book, i, 335) could speak by magic power (i. 29).

Of his life and career Saxo gives several episodes.

Woden himself dwelt at Upsala and Byzantium [Asgard]
i. 25, and the northern kings sent him a golden image ring-

1 This is a curious tradition, a pair of gods going about, usually in
friendship, here in opposition.

- Dr. Rydberg here wishes to see Heimdald, but without probability.

3 Probably as Huikarr. 4 C. P. B. ii. 42G.

6 There are traits of Woden, too, in Bolwiss the evil counsellor (vii.
235), who is, however, more likely the Billie Blin of our ballads ; see Child,
English and Scottish Popular Ballads (i. (>7, 95), who cites Grimm, Dent.
Myth., 1879 (i. 301).

INTRODUCTION. lxi

bedecked, which lie made to speak oracles. His wife Frigga
stole the bracelets and played him false with a servant, who
advised her to destroy and rob the image.

When Woden was away (hiding the disgrace brought on him
by Frigga his wife), an impostor, Mi8-03in, possibly Loke in
disguise, usurped his place at Upsala, instituted special drink-
offerings, fled to Finland on Woden's return, and was slain by
tin' Fins and laid in barrow. But the barrow7 smote all that
approached it with death, till the body was unearthed, be-
headed, and impaled, a well-known process for stopping the
haunting of an obnoxious or dangerous ghost (i. 25).

Woden had a son Balder [BalSr], rival of Hother [Ho^r1]
for the love of Nanna, daughter of King Gewar (iii. 70-8).
Woden and Thor his son fougdit for him against Hother
(iii. 73), but in vain, for Hother won the lady and put Balder
to shameful flight ; however, Balder, half-frenzied by his
dreams of Nanna, in turn drove him into exile [winning the
lady] ; finalty Hother, befriended by luck and the Wood
Maidens, to whom he owed his early successes and his magic
coat, belt, and girdle [there is obvious confusion here in the
text], at last met Balder and stabbed him in the side. Of this
wound Balder died in three days, as was foretold by the awful
dream in wdiich Proserpina [Hela] appeared to him (iii. 77).
Balder's grand burial, his barrow, and the magic flood which
burst from it when one Harald tried to break into it, and
terrified the robbers (iii. 78), are described.

The death of Balder led Woden to seek revenge. Hrossthiof
the wizard, whom he consulted, told him he must beget a
son by Wrinda (Rinda, daughter of the King of the Ruthenians),
who should aveno-e his half-brother.

Woden's wooing (iii. 79) is the best part of this story, half

spoilt, however, by euhemeristic tone and lack of epic dignity.

He woos as a victorious warrior, and receives a cuff; as a

. generous goldsmith, and gets a buffet ; as a handsome soldier,

earning a heavy knock-down blow; but in the garb of a woman

1 Dr. Rydberg has suggested that in Hotherus Hodr and Od are
confounded.

lxii INTRODUCTION.

as Wecha (Wakr), skilled in leechcraft, he won his way by
trickery; and [ Wale] Boas1 was born, who, after some years,
slew Hother in battle, and died himself of his wounds (iii. 82).
Bous' barrow in Bohusland, Raider's haven (iii. 74), Balder's
well (iii. 74), are named as local attestations of the legend,
which is in a late form, as it seems.

The story of Woden's being banished for misbehaviour, and
especially for sorcery and for having worn woman's attire to
trick Wrinda, his replacement by Wulclor (Oiler), a high priest
who assumed Woden's name and flourished for ten years, but
was ultimately expelled by the returning Woden, and killed
by the Danes in Sweden, is in the same style. But Wuldor's
bone vessel is an old bit of genuine tradition mangled. It
would cross the sea as well as a ship could, by virtue of certain
spells marked on it (iii. 81).

Of Frey, who appears as satrapa of the gods at Upsala (iii.
75), and as the originator of human sacrifice, and as appeased
by black victims (i. 30), at a sacrifice called Froblod [Freys-blot]
instituted by Hadding, who began it as an atonement for
having slain a sea- monster, a deed for which he had incurred
a curse (vi. 185). The priapic and generative influences of
Frey are only indicated by a curious tradition mentioned ix.
301. It almost looks as if there had once been such an institu-
tion at Upsala as adorned the Phoenician temples, under Frey's
patronage and for a symbolic means of worship. The Swedes'
special cult of Frey as god and founder is noted viii. 260.
Some of Frey's adventures are told or hinted at in § 9,
who appears (as Dr. Rydberg has shown) as Frode in the story
of Eric.

Thunder, or Thor, is Woden's son, strongest of gods or men
(ii. 44), patron of Starcad, whom he turned, by pulling off"
four arms, from a monster to a man (vi. 183).

He fights by Woden's side and Balder's against Hother, by
whose magic wand his club [hammer] was lopped off part of

1 Bous' barrow reminds one of Beowulf's famous barrow, on the Goth-
land coast. Bous is the Biar or Beaw of the genealogies.

[NTKODUCTION. b

its shaft, a wholly different and, as it is told iii. 73, a much
later version than the one Snorre gives in the prose Edda.1
Saxo knows of Thor's journey to the haunt of giant Garfred
(Geirrod) and his three daughters, and of the hurling of the
iron " bloom", and of the crushing of the giantesses, though he
does not seem to have known of the river-feats of either the
ladies or Thor, if we may judge (never a safe thing wholly)
by his silence (viii. 290).

Whether Teiv is meant by the Mars of the Song of the
Voice (i. 80) is not evident. Saxo may only be imitating the
repeated catch-word " war" of the original.

Rydberg has much to say about the story of Hadding and the
monster (i. 30) ; see below. He takes Lyserus to be Heimdall.

Loke appears as Utgard-Loke, Loke of the skirts of the
World, as it were ; is treated (viii. 294) as a venomous giant
bound in agony under a serpent-haunted cavern [no mention
is made of Sigyn or her pious ministry].

Hela seems to be meant by Saxo's Proserpina (ii. 77).

Kanna is the daughter of Gewar, and Balder sees her bath-
ing (ii. 70) and falls in love with her, as madly as Frey with
Gertha in Skirnismal.

Freya, the mistress of Od, the patroness of Othere the

1 In a later book (xm. 421), there is an account of Thor's hammers : —
"Among other notable trophies he [Magnus Nicholasson] took care to
bring home certain hammers of unusual weight, which they call Thor's
(Iouiales), used by the island men in their antique faith. For the men of
old, desiiing to comprehend the causes of thunder and lightning by
means of the similitude of things, took hammers great and massy of
bronze, with which they believed the crashing of the sky might be
made, thinking that great and vio'ent noise might very well be imitated
by the smith's toil, as it were. But Magnus, in his zeal for Christian
t aching and dislike to Paganism, determined to spoil the temple of
its equipment and Thor [Iovem] of his tokens in the place of his
sanctity. And even now the Swedes consider him guilty of sacrilege and
a robber of spoil belonging to the gods."

Saxo here implies that the hammer was used in some way in the
ceremonies connected with Thunder, and that Thor's hammer makes
thunder in heaven (as the Japanese Thunder god does still in popular
belief).

lxiv INTRODUCTION.

homely, the sister of Frey-Frode, and daughter of Niord-
Fridlaf, appears as Gunwara Eric's love and Syritha Ottar's
love and the hair-clogged maiden, as Dr. Rydberg has shown.
See § 10.

The gods can disguise their form, change their shape (i. 70),
are often met in a mist(iii. 70), which shrouds them save from
the right person ; they appear and disappear at will. For the
rest they have the mental and physical characteristics of the
kings and queens they protect or persecute so capriciously.
They can be seen by making a magic sign and looking through
a witch's arm held akimbo (ii. 66). They are no good co-mates
for men or women (iii. 73), and to meddle with a goddess or
nymph or giantess was to ensure evil or death for a man. The
god's loves were apparently not always so fatal, though there
seems to be some tradition to that effect. Most of the god-sprung
heroes are motherless or unborn (i.e., born like Macduff by the
Cesarean operation) — Sigfred, in the Eddie Lays, for instance.

Besides the gods, possibly older than they are, and presumably
mightier, are the Fates [Norns], (iii. 70), three Ladies who are
met with together, who fulfil the parts of the gift-fairies of
our Sleeping Beauty tales, and bestow endowments on the
new-born child, as in the beautiful Helge Lay [C. P. B. i.,
Helgi and Sigrun Lay], a point of the story which survives in
the Ogier of the Chansons de Geste, wherein Eadgar (Otkerus
or Otgerus) gets what belonged to Holger (Holge), the Helga til
of Beowulf's Lay. The caprices of the Fates, where one corrects
or spoils the others' endowments,are seen in Saxo, vi. 181, when
beauty, bounty, and meanness are given together. They some-
times meet heroes, as they met Helgi in the Eddie Lay (Helgi
and Sigrun Lay), and help or begift them ; they prepare the
magic broth for Balder, are charmed with Hother's lute-play-
ing, and bestow on him a belt of victory and a girdle of
splendour1 (iii. 77), and prophesy things to come.

1 Saxo is not clear here ; there is something unexplained. What is the
girdle for ? Were there two gifts ? or one \ or three 'I The story is not
complete, and Dr. Rydberg has noticed fehe fact, and accounts for it by
supposing the story to be badly interpolated and two myths mixed up.

INTRODUCTION. lxv

The verse in Biarca-mal (ii. 65), where " Pluto weaves the
dooms of the mighty and fills Phlegethon with noble shapes",
recalls Darrada-lioft (G. P. B. i), and points to Woden as
death-doomer of the warrior.

Giants. — These are stupid, mischievous, evil and cunning in
Saxo's eyes. Oldest of beings, with chaotic force and exuber-
ance, monstrous in extravagant vitality (i. 19).

The giant nature of the older troll-kind is abhorrent to man
and woman (i. 13-4). But a giantess is enamoured of a youth
she had fostered (i. 21), and giants carry off kings' daughters1
(vii. 178 ; vii. 225), and a three-bodied giant captures young
children (vi. 178).

Giants live in caves by the sea (vi. 179), where they keep
their treasure. One giant, Unfoot (Ofoti), is a shepherd, like
Polyphemus, and has a famous dog which passed into the
charge of Biorn, and won a battle ; a giantess is keeping goats
in the wilds (vii. 225).

A giant's fury is so great that it takes twelve champions to
control him, when the rage is on him (vii. 222).

The troll (like our Puss-in-Boots Ogre) can take any shape
(vi. 178).

Monstrous apparitions are mentioned, a giant hand [like
that in one story of Finn] searching for its prey among the
inmates of a booth in the wilds (i. 23). But this Grendel-
like arm is torn off* by a giantess, Hardgrip,2 daughter of
Wainhead and niece possibly of Hafle (i. 19).

The voice heard at night prophesying (i. 28) is that of some
god or monster, possibly Woden himself. Cf. G. P. B. i.

Divarves. — These Saxo calls Satyrs, and but rarely mentions.
The dwarf Miming, who lives in the desert, has a precious
sword of sharpness [Mistletoe ?] that could even pierce the

1 The story (vii. 225), evidently a myth, as Dr. Rydberg has explained
referring to Freya, is not explained by Saxo. Why did the giant kno
her hair 1

2 She occurs in the Thulor, G. P. B. ii. 425, as well as her kinsfol
Ofote, Wagnhofde, Storwerkr, Hrossbiofr, Garrotfr. But HarSbein and

I Tanne do not occur there.

lxvi INTRODUCTION.

skin-hard Balder, and a ring [Draupnir] that multiplied itself
for its possessor. He is trapped by the hero and robbed of his
treasures.

7. — FUNERAL RITES AND ESCHATOLOGY.

Barroiv-burials. — The obsequies of great men (such as the
classic funeral of Beowulf's Lay, 3138-80) are much noticed by
Saxo, and we might expect that he knew such a poem (one
similar to Ynglingatal, but not it) which, like the Books of the
Kings of Israel and Judah, recorded the deaths and burials, as
well as the pedigrees and deeds, of the Danish kings. Local
knowledge, however, has certainly been a factor in his work
here, and Saxo constantly appeals to place-names as authorities,
precisely as the late Icelandic editors of such tales as Isfirdinga
Saga do, though in our opinion he does not (as they certainly
do) make his story out of his local geography. He mentions —

The barrows at Upsala of Mr3-0$in (i. 25), still visited and
known ; of Asmund and Gunhild (i. 27) ; of Uffe (i. 32), also
in Sweden.

The barrows of Hamlet in Jutland (iv. 106) ; of Hiarn (vi.
177) ; of Frode at Waere (v. 171) ; of Hagbard (vii. 2371) ; and
of Hacon Hamundsson by Alsted (vii. 238-9) ; of Starcad at
Roliung (viii. 279), in Zealand ; Gelder's barrow is in Sleswick
(iii. 74).

The barrows of Aswit and Asmund in Wick (v. 161); of
Frode's men at Omi, Stavanger(v. 149) ; of Gunntheow Alrec's
son in the Soleys (v. 161).

The barrow of Boe2 in Bohusland (iii. 82$) ; of Harald at
Bravalla (viii. 264).

The various stages of the obsequy by fire are noted viii.
264; the pyre sometimes formed out of a ship iii. 74 ; the sati

1 The famous story of Hagbard and Signy is also locally connected with
Aungley, SignyarbreSur, and Hagbardsholen in Halogaland ; Sigarsvoll in
Lister ; Angulsness in Bergen ; Angemes in Stavanger ; Hagbardsholm
and Salborg in Aggershuus.

2 This is very possibly, as we have noticed above, the traditional barrow
of Beowulf on Hronesnies.

INTRODUCTION. lxvii

iv. 106 ; the devoted bower-maidens choosing to die with their
mistress, the dead man's beloved (vii. 236) [cf. the Eddie
funerals of Balder, Sigfred, and Brunhild, G. P. B. ii. 704, in the
Long Brunhild's Lay, Tregrof Gudrunar and the lost poem of
Balder's death paraphrased in the prose Edda] ; the last
message given to the corpse on the pyre (viii. 264) [Woden's
last words to Balder are famous, cf. Heidrec's Riddles and
the Lay of Wafthrudner] ; the riding round the pyre ; the
eulogium ; the piling of the barrow, which sometimes took
whole days, as the size of many existing grass mounds assure
us ; the funeral feast (iii. 75 ; i. 36), where an immense vat of
ale or mead is drunk in honour of the dead ; the epitaph, like
an ogham, set up on a stone over the barrow (vii. 247) [cf.
C. P. B. i. 8, 252, 371].

The inclusion of a live man with the dead in a barrow, with
the live or fresh-slain beasts (horse and hound) of the dead
man (vi. 161), seems to point to a time or district when burn-
ing was not used. Apparently, at one time, judging from
Frode's law, only chiefs and warriors were burnt.

Not to bury was, as in Hellas, an insult to the dead, reserved
for the bodies of hated foes. Conquerors sometimes show
their magnanimity (like Harald Godwineson) by offering to
bury their dead foes (viii. 264).

The buried barrow-ghost was formidable ; he could rise and
slay and eat, vampire-like, as in the tale of Asmund and
Aswit. He must in such case be mastered and prevented
doing further harm by decapitation and thigh-forking (viii.
277), or by staking and burning (i. 26 ; ii. 45 ; v. 163). So
criminals' bodies were often burnt (iv. 98) to stop possible
haunting.

Witches and wizards could raise corpses by spells (i. 22)
[cf. Eddie Lays, Swipdag's Lay, Angantheow's Waking, C. P. B.
ii. 704] to make them prophesy. The dead also appeared in
visions (i. 35), usually foretelling death to the person they
visited [G. P. B. ii. 330].

Other Worlds. — The Land of Undeath is spoken of iv. 105,
as a place reached by an exiled hero in his wanderings. We

e 2

Ixviii INTRODUCTION.

know it from Eric the traveller's S., Helge Thoreson's S.,
Herraud and Bose S., Herwon S., Thorstan Bsearmagn S., and
other Icelandic sources. But the voyages to the Other Worlds
are some of the most remarkable of the narratives Saxo has
preserved for us.

H adding 's Voyage Underground (i. 31). — (a) A woman
bearing in her lap angelica fresh and green, though it was
deep winter, appears to the hero at supper, raising her head
beside the brazier. Hadding wishes to know where such
plants grow.

(6) She takes him with her, under cover of her mantle,
underground.

(c) They pierce a mist, get on a road worn by long use,
pass nobly-clad men, and reach the sunny fields that bear the
angelica : —

"Through griesly shadowes by a beaten path,
Into a garden goodly garnished."

F. Q ii. 7, 51.

(d) Next they cross, by a bridge, the River of Blades, and
see tvoo armies fighting , ghosts of slain soldiers.

(e) Last they came to a high wall, which surrounds the land
of Life, for a cock the woman brought with her, whose neck
she wrung and tossed over this wall, came to life and crowed
merrily.

Here the story breaks off. It is unfinished, we are only told
that Hadding got back. Why he was taken to this under-
world ? who took him ? what followed therefrom ? Saxo
does not tell. It is left to us to make out.

That it is an archaic story of the kind in the Thomas of
Ercildoune and so many more fairy-tales, e.g., Kate Crack-a-
Nuts, is certain. The River of Blades and The Fighting
Warriors are known from the Eddie Poems. The angelica is
like the green birk of that superb fragment, the ballad of the
Wife of Usher's Well — a little more frankly heathen, of course —

" It fell about the Martinmas, when nights are long and mirk,
The carline wife's three sons cam hame, and their hats were o' the birk.

INTRODUCTION. lxix

It neither grew in syke nor dyke, nor yet in ony sheugh,
But at the gates o' Paradise that birk grew fair eneuch."1

The mantle is that of Woden when he bears the hero over
seas ; the cock is a bird of sorcery the world over ; the black
fowl is the proper gift to the Underground powers — a heriot
really, for did not the Culture god steal all the useful beasts
out of the underground world for men's use ?

Hadding's land is mysteriously mentioned in a scrap of
verse, the old Gudrun's Lay, 126, that evidently alludes to the
story of these wonderful experiences : —

44 The long lyng-fish of Hadding's-land" ( = serpents),

but the reading is perhaps not safe.

The Voyage of Guthrwm [Gorm] Haraldson to Giant-land
(viii. 286). — (a) Thorkill the Icelander told the king of Thor's
having once gone to visit Giant Garfred, and declared that
there were piles of treasure to be found in that far-off land.

(b) Guthrum resolves to make Thorkill his guide and go ;
300 bold fellows volunteer, and three stout vessels are built,
covered with ox-hide awnings, and well found in rigging, sails,
and stores.

(c) North away fairty, but off Halogaland they are driven
to sea by contrary gales. Food gives out ; only porridge left.
A nimble youth ascends the mast-head, when the sound of
surf is heard, and reports a high-clifted island.

1 Clerk Saunders speaks of the " gilly flowers" of heaven, and the
Dead man's song also : —

11 The fields about this city faire were all with roses set,
Gilliflowers and carnations rare, which canker could not fret."
And Sir Owain, also quoted by Sir Walter Scott in his Minstrelsy: —

" Fair were her erbers with flowers, rose and lily [of] divers coloures
Primerose and parvenke,
Mint, feverfoy, and eglentere, Columbin and mo ther were

Than any may bithenke.
It bereth erbes of other manere, than any in erth groweth here,

Tho that is beat of pris ;
Evermore thei grene springe th, for winter nor somer it ne clingeth,
And sweeter than licorice."

lxx INTRODUCTION.

(d) They land ; the place is full of cattle, tame from not
knowing men. Thorkill warns the sailors not to take more
than they need, but greedily they kill and load their vessels'
empty holds. Next night huge monsters, keepers of the herds
for the gods of the place, beset the ships, club in hand, and
one waded out and demanded a man from each vessel as
satisfaction. Three sailors were accordingly chosen by lot and
given up.

(e) A wind wafts the ships on to Utter Permland, snowy,
frost-clad, with rocky-bedded foaming rivers. Here they
beach the ships, pitch tents, and are warned by Thorkill
against hasty or superfluous speech. Gudmund the giant,
Garfred's brother, meets them, asks why none but Thorkill
speaks, and is answered that they are ashamed to use a
strange tongue unskilfully. Gudmund takes them in carriages
or sleighs to his house, where dwell his twelve sons and
twelve daughters, all beautiful.

(/) Thorkill warns his men not to touch Gudmund's meat
or drink, plate, or servants, and excuses them to the host as
not able to take strange food. Gudmund successively tempts
them with fruit and with offers of women of his household as
concubines ; but, warned by Thorkill, they resist, all save
four, who rise to the last bait, and lose their senses.

((/) Foiled, Gudmund takes them over, not by the gold
bridge reserved to spirits, but by a boat across the river that
parts main-land and monster-land. They reach a dark, cloudy
closed town (apparently of pueblo type), with high doors only
reached by ladders, heads of dead warriors on the battlements,
and fierce dogs watching the entrances. The dogs were pacified
with a fat-smeared horn to lick ; ladders reach the gates.
They enter the foul, miry city of black shrieking ghosts, and
seek the high, rocky hall of Garfred, warned by Thorkill not
to touch or fear aught within, for whatever they touched
would hold them tight. Four abreast they enter, Broder,
Boge, Gu thrum, and Thorkill first. The house was ruinous
and stinking, spear-heads for tiles, snakes and dung for rushes
and floor ; high iron seats, separated by lead gratings, and

INTRODUCTION. lxxi

pale, hideous ghosts and monstrous doorkeepers its occupants.
Some monsters are lashing clubs at each other, and others
are playing a filthy game with motion of goat-like backs. On
the high seat, in a cavernous hall with riven opening, sat
Garfred, huge, mangled by a piercing wound, and by him his
three broken-backed daughters.

(h) As they turned to depart they beheld treasures. Seven
ale vats, gold-hooped with linked silver chains, tusk gold-
tipped, stag or elk's horn gold-decked and jewelled, and a
heavy bracelet ; but when they were seized the tusk became
a sword, the horn and bracelet snakes, which slew the persons
that held them. In a small treasure-house there were
giant arms, a royal mantle, cap, and belt. Thorkill caught up
these. The whole cavern shook, the women screamed against
them, the ghosts woke up and attacked them, and tore in
pieces all but twenty, and these were saved by the skill of
Broder and Boge with slings and bows.

(i) Gudmund ferried them back, and entertained them,
trying again to entrap them. Boge fell a victim to love for
one of Gudmund's daughters, went mad, and was drowned as
he strove to ford the river in his car.1

(k) Guthrum and the rest embarked, met good and bad
winds, famine, and, after losing many of the remnant, reached
home, in consequence of vows and peace-offerings to Outgarth-
Loke.

This is a voyage which is evidently much the same as that
of Eric, below, in many details. Dr. Rydberg has shown that
the Seven Sleepers story is an old Northern myth, alluded to
here in its early pre-Christian form, and that with this is
mixed other incidents from voyages of Swipdag, the Teutonic
Odusseus.

To the Swipdag-Odusseus story belongs (a) the sending for
treasure ; (b) the three vessels ; (c) the lack of food ; (d) the
cattle slaying, Homer's Cattle of the Cicones, Od. ix, rather

1 There is confusion here. Were there two rivers, one before Gud-
mund's, one after? Dr. Rydberg's geography allows both.

lxxii INTRODUCTION.

than the Oxen of the Sun, Oil. xii ; (e) the enforced silence is

like that of Thomas of Ercildoune : —

" Whan thou comis to yonder castell gay,
I pray thee curtes man to be,
And whatso any man to thee say,
Loke thou answere non but me !"

(/) The temptation of meat and drink is also in the Border

ballad : —

' ' She led him intill a fair herbere,
Ther frute groand was gret plente,
Peyres and appuls, both ripe they were,
The date and eke the damsyn tre,

The fig and eke the wineberry.

* * * * *

He presed to pul the frute with his hond,

As man for fode was nyhonde feynt.
She said : " Thomas, let that stond,

Or ellis the fend will thee attent.

If thou pulle them, sothe to say,

Thy soul gois to the fyre of Hell ;
Hit comis not out till Domisday,

But thereever in pyne to dwell."

The penalty in Saxo's story is loss of senses, probably
originally metamorphosis to beasts, for Garmund is the Kirke
of the Teutonic Odyssey.

(g) This city is the Teutonic Tartarus, foul, snake-haunted,
ordure-full, dark. Dr. Rydberg has aptly explained the reasons
for the circus-like seats, arranged so that the filth shall fall
upon the viler sinners who wallow on the slimy, putrid floor.
Garfred has here three daughters, broken backed ; in the old
poems he seems to have had but two, Gialp and Greip, whose
backs were broken ; as the fragmentary Lay of Thor says :

" Eirmo sinni neyttac As-megins
Iotna gorSom 1,
t>iles Gialp oc Greip dotr Geirroftar
Wildo hefja mic til himins."1

Once on a time in giant land
My God's strength I must try,

When Garfred's daughters, Yelp and Grip,
Would heave me to the sky.

INTRODUCTION. lxxiii

The third daughter (called Gialp also in the prose Edda)
seems unknown to Eilef Gudrunsson, but it is more likely that
originally, as in Saxo, there were three daughters, and that one
was crippled by the stone that Thor so ungallantly hurled.

(h) The Seven Sleeper type. Spenser's Cave of Mammon
has the same kernel : —

"Thou fearefull foole,
Why takest not of that same frute of gold ?
Ne sitteat downe on that same silver stoole
To rest thy weary person in the shadow coole ?
* # # # n

To which if he inclyned had at all
That dreadfull feend, which did behind him wayt
Would him have rent in thousand peeces strayt."

F. Q. ii. 7, 63, 4.

(i) The loss of a trusted comrade, who falls at last, having
overcome greed and hunger, before lust, and his death by
drowning or falling from his car, recalls the death of Elpenor
and of the helmsman. The Seiren temptation of song is
absent in the Teutonic tale, unless it was represented by Gar-
mund's daughters, and has been slurred over by Saxo or his
authorities.

Thorh ■ ill's Second Voyage to Outgarth-Loke to get Know-
ledge (viii. 292). — (a) Guthrum is troubled as to the immortality
and fate of the soul, and the reward of piety after death. To
spite Thorkill, his enviers advised the king to send him to
consult Outgarth-Loke. He required of the king that his
enemies should be sent with him.

(b) In one well-stored and hide-defended ship they set out,
reached a sunless, starless land, without fuel ; ate raw food
and suffered. At last, after many days, a fire was seen
ashore. Thorkill, setting a jewel at the mast-head to be able
to regain his vessel easily, rows ashore to get fire.

1 Such bird-beaked, bird-legged figures occur on the Cross at Papil,
Burra Island, Shetland. Cf, Abbey Morne Cross, and an Onchan Cross,
I. of Man.

lxxiv INTRODUCTION.

to direct him to Loke if he will say three true things in three
phrases, and this done, tells him to row four days, and then
he would reach a Dark and Grassless Land. For three more
true sayings he obtains fire, and gets back to his vessel.

(d) With good wind they make Grassless Land, go ashore,
find a huge, rocky cavern, strike a flint to kindle a fire at the
entrance as a safeguard against demons, and a torch to light
them as they explored the cavern.

(e) First appear iron seats set amid crawling snakes.
(/) Next is sluggish water flowing over sand.

(g) Last a steep, sloping cavern is reached, in a chamber of
which lay Outgarth-Loke chained, huge and foul.

(h) Thorkill plucks a hair of his beard " as big as a cornel-
wood spear". The stench that arose was fearful ; the demons
and snakes fell upon the invaders at once ; only Thorkill and
five of the crew, who had sheltered themselves with hides
against the virulent poison the demons and snakes cast, which
would take a head off at the neck if it fell upon it, got back
to their ship.

(i) By vow to the " God that made the world", and offerings,
a good voyage was made back, and Germany reached, where
Thorkill became a Christian. Only two of his men survived
the effects of the poison and stench, and he himself was scarred
and spoilt in the face.

(k) When he reached the king, Guthrum would not listen
to his tale, because it was prophesied to him that he would die
suddenly if he heard it; nay, he even sent men to smite him as
he lay in bed, but, by the device of laying a log in his place, he
escaped, and going to the king as he sat at meat, reproached
him for his treachery.

(I) Guthrum bade him tell his story, but died of horror at
hearing his god Loke foully spoken of, while the stench of the
hair that Thorkill produced, as Othere did his horn for a
voucher of his speech, slew many bystanders.

This voyage is also a part of the Swipdag-Odusseus myth.
(a) It was undertaken for knowledge ; and is brought about by
treachery, like that of Sir Patrick Spens ;

INTRODUCTION. lxxv

" 0 wha is he has done this deed,
And told the King o' me,
To send us out this time o' the year
To sail upon the sea?"1

(b) The dark, fuelless, starless Land, seems like a myth
built on the facts of the Arctic islands. Yet to reach the
Other-world one has to go through Mist (as Hadding did)
and Darkness, as here and in Thomas of Erceldoune,

"There it was a midnight merke."

The device of the gem-lantern shows also like a bit of the
lost Swipdag story.

(c) The Giants of the Fire seem to be the sole remains of
another incident of the Swipdag story. The land of Darkness
is a land where Truth bears a price, being rare.

(d) The story is badly told here ; why did not Thorkill
make a flint fire before ? Different tales are mixed, probably.

(e) This is the Tartarus, as in the First Voyage (g).

(/) This is the river to be waded, as in the tale of True

Thomas : —

" And ever water till the knee,
The montenans of dayis three.

He herd bot swoghyng of the flode."

(g) This is the regular myth of Loke, punished by the gods,
lying bound with his own sons' entrails on three sharp stones
and a sword-blade (this latter an addition, when the myth
was made stones were the only blades), with snakes' venom
dripping on to him, so that when it falls on him he shakes
with pain and makes earthquakes — a Titan myth in answer to
the question, " Why does the earth quake ?" The vitriolic
power of the poison is excellently expressed in the story.2 The
plucking of the hair as a token is like the plucking of a horn
off the giant or devil that occurs in some folk-tale.

1 It should appear in the ballad, which is very much mutilated, that
one of the gude Scots lairds was the "eldern knight" that brought ill on
Sir Patrick. Poetic justice requires it.

2 Compare the Icelandic Skida-rfma, where the gigantic tooth ig
brought back.

lxxvi INTRODUCTION.

(i) The saving merits of piety are shown also in the first
voyage of Thorkill.

(h, I) The fatal effects of a dream when first told make a
fine and final incident in the story of Gudmund the Mighty in
Iceland. The treachery attempted against the returned
traveller is part of the Swipdag-Odusseus myth, and possibly
the peg of connection between Odusseus the Fighter and
Odusseus the Traveller. The comic horror of the stinking hair
would make one think of the Rabelaisian Thor-poems, the
Western Aristophanes (C. P. B. i), and Skida-rima (G. P. B. ii).
The trick of the log in bed is one of the Jack the Giant-Killer
incidents; and very widespread, as an obvious savage trick.

The Voyage of Eric the Speech-wise (v. 127). — (a) It is
resolved by Gother to send men to seek Frode, who is a young
king with a bad court, managed by the three Greps and Coll,
Westmar, Odd, and Gotwar, Coil's wife, all foul, ill-conditioned
beings.

(6) Grep has killed all the suitors of Gunwar, the king's
sister, and set their heads about her bower.

(c) Hrafn [Raven], who is first sent by Gother, is slain, and
his force beaten back by Odd's magic, with only six vessels
safe out of a whole fleet.

(d) Eric the Speech-wise is sent with his half-brother
Roller ; he is fitted out well by his father, and gets magic
snake-broth from Ragnar's wife, Eric's stepmother (of which
Eric by trick gets but part, and so gains eloquence and know-
ledge of animals' talk).

(e) They sail in three ships ; Odd meets them with seven.
Eric, getting information by naked spies, is able to bore holes
in Odd's stone-laden vessels and sink them.

(/) Supplies running short, two ships are sent home from
Lesso [Leirsey], the third goes on. On approaching an island,
Zealand, the greedy sailors, not heeding Eric, make a great
strand-hew. They are attacked by the owners, but saved by
Eric's trick.

(g) Eric lands, slipping as he does so ; meets Grep, and has
a flyting match with him, and beats him. Grep then tries a

INTRODUCTION. lxxvii

horse's-head spell: this is defeated. Next, Eric by trick foils a
piece of horseplay, and gets the joker Coll hanged.1 Then he
foils Grep again, and has him slain, puts the queen to shame,
wins Gunwar from the king, beats Grep's friend in a wager of
battle by a device, overcomes Gotwar in iiyting, and Westmar
in a tug of war, outwits the King Frode, and carries off his
sister.

(h) Frode pursues them, but is foiled, and saved from
drowning by Eric.

(i) The king agrees to give his sister to Eric, and to Roller his
divorced wife, to have Gotwar stoned, to wed Gother's sister.

(k) Eric on coming home is in trouble with his king Gother,
who wishes to take Eric's wife ; but Eric outwits him, and
carries the king's daughter back to Frode by help of Craca his
stepmother's potions and his own clever plans.

(I) Gotar pursues him and is killed, and his realm given to
Roller.

(m) Eric enters Frode's service and helps him to defeat his
foes.

This is in many respects a duplicate of the other journeys ;
the cattle-killing, the tricks of the court foiled by self-
restraint, the evil reception at home, all show that Eric is a
doublet of Thorkill, and that the archetype of the journey is
a visit to the Otherworld, the world outside Mid-garth, beyond
the terra media hominibus apta.

8. — MAGIC AND FOLK-SCIENCE.

There is a belief in magic throughout Saxo's work, showing
how fresh heathendom still was in men's minds and memories.
His explanations, when he euhemerizes, are those of his day.

By means of spells all kinds of wonders could be effected,
and the powers of nature forced to work for the magician or
his favourite.

Skin-changing [so common in Landnamaboc] was as well

1 It is evidently Coll that is the joker, and is punished therefor ; Saxo
nods here.

lxxviii INTRODUCTION.

known as in the classic world of Lucian and Apuleius (i. 20,
21 ; ii. 44) ; and (v. 170), where Frode perishes of the attacks of
a witch metamorphosed into a walrus.

J\fist is induced by spells (ii. 44) to cover and hide persons,
as in Homer (vii. 219), and glamour is produced by spells to
dazzle foemen's sight (v. 128 ; i. 20). To cast glamour and put
confusion into besieged place a witch is employed by the be-
leaguerer, just as William the Conqueror used the witch in
the Fens against Hereward's forfcalice. A soothsayer warns
Charles the Great of the coming of a Danish fleet to Seine
mouth (ix. 306).

Rain and bad iveather may be brought on (v. 228), as in a
battle against the enemy, but in this, as in other instances, the
spell may be counteracted (i. 32).

Panic Terror may be induced by the spell worked with a
dead horse's head set up on a pole facing the antagonist (v. 134),
but the spell may be met and combatted by silence and a
counter-curse (v. 135).

Magic help may be got by calling on the friendly magician's
name. The magician has also the power of summoning to him
anyone, however unwilling, to appear (vii. 218).

Of spells and magic power to blunt steel there are several
instances (iv. 119; vi. 187; vii. 219, 223, 244, 247) ; they may
be counteracted (as in the Icelandic Sagas) by using the hilt,
or a club, or covering the blade with fine skin. In another
case the champion can only be overcome by one that will take
up some of the dust from under his feet (iv. 118). This is
effected by the combatants shifting their ground and ex-
changing places. In another case the foeman can only be slain
by gold, whereupon the hero has a gold-headed mace made
and batters the life out of him therewith (i. 17). The brothers
of Swanhild cannot be cut by steel, for their mail was charmed
by the witch Gudrun, but Woden taught Eormenric, the
Gothic king, how to overcome them with stones [which appa-
rently cannot, as archaic weapons, be charmed against at all,
resisting magic like wood and water and tire] (viii. 281).
Jordanis tells the true history of Ermanaric, that great Gothic

INTRODUCTION. lxxix

emperor whose rule from the Dnieper to the Baltic and Rhine
ami Danube, and long reign of prosperity, were broken by the
coming of the Huns. With him vanished the first great
Teutonic empire. See G. C. P. 37-43.

A Victory -giving belt is spoken of iii. 77, and a magic
bracelet iii. 71.1

Magic was powerful enough even to raise the dead, as was
practised by the Perms, who thus renewed their forces after a
battle (i. 32). In the Everlasting battle the combatants were
by some strange trick of fate obliged to fulfil a perennial
weird (like the unhappy Vanderdecken). Spells to wake the
dead were written on wood and put under the corpse's
tongue (i. 22). Spells (written on bark) induce frenzy (iii. 79)
[cf. C. P. B. i. 19, 26, 27].

Charms would secure a man against claw or tooth (viii. 280).

Love philtres (as in the long Lay of Gudrun, 120) appear
v. 148, as everywhere in savage and archaic society.

Food, porridge mixed with the slaver of tortured snakes,
gives magic strength (iii. 77), or endues the eater with
eloquence and knowledge of beast and bird speech (as Finn's
broiled fish and Sigfred's broiled dragon-heart do).

Poisons like these hell-broths are part of the Witch or
Obi stock-in-trade, and Frode uses powdered gold as an anti-
dote (ii. 50). G. P. B. i. 158, 306, 321, 395.

Omens are observed ; tripping as one lands is lucky [as
with our William the Norman] (v. 132). Portents, such as
a sudden reddening of the sea where the hero is drowned (vi.
117-8), are noticed and interpreted.

Dreams (cf. Eddie Lays of Attila, and the Border ballads)
are prophetic (as nine-tenths of Europeans firmly believe still);
thus the visionary flame-spouting dragon (vi. 175) is interpreted
exactly as Hogne's and Attila's dreams [cf. C. P. B. i. 333,
347, 393, 413, and ii. 410, 547]. The dreams of the three first
bridals nights (which were kept hallowed by a curious super-

1 The fateful Brisinga-men (ii. 55) is, of course, a charmed object; it is
the Kestos of the Greek tale, the necklace of Eriphula. See C. P. B. ii.
5G3.

lxxx INTRODUCTION.

stition, either because the dreams would then hold good, or
as is more likely, for fear of some Asmodeus) were fateful (ix.
(319). Animals and birds in dreams are read as persons, as
nowadays. A dream augury occurs xvi. 669 [cf. C. P. B. i.
240, 333, 347, 393, 413 ; ii. 410, 547].

A curse is powerful unless it can be turned back, when
it will harm its utterer, for harm someone it must. The curse
on Hadding (i. 30) is the same as the Eddie curse of Sigrun
upon Day, 0. P. B. i. 116, 140, 422 ; ii. 547. The curse of a
dying man on his slayer, and its lack of effect, is noted vii. 252.

Sometimes magic messengers are sent, like the swans that
bore a token and uttered warning songs to the hero (vi. 178).

The sivan-belt is noticed elsewhere ; see Dr. Rydberg's
remarks.

Witches and wizards (as belonging to the older layer of
archaic beliefs) are hateful to the gods, and Woden casts them
out (i. 25) as accursed, though he himself was the mightiest of
wizards. Heathen Teutonic life was a long terror by reason of
witchcraft, as is the heathen African life to-day, continual
precautions being needful to escape the magic of enemies.
The Icelandic Sagas, such as Gretter's, are full of magic and
witchcraft. It is by witchcraft that Gretter is first lamed
and finally slain ; one can see that Glam's curse, the Beowulf
motif, was not really in the original Gretter story.

Folk-medicine is really a branch of magic in old days, even
to such pioneers of science as Paracelsus.

Saxo's traditions note drinking of a lion's blood that eats
men as a means of gaining might and strength (i. 24) ; the
drinking of bear's blood (ii. 57) is also declared to give great
bodily power.

The tests for madness (iii. <S9) are of a primitive character,
such as those applied to Odusseus, who, however, was not able,
like Hamlet, to evade them.

The test for death (v. 166) is the red-hot iron or hot brand
[used by the Abyssinians of to-day, as it was supposed in the
thirteenth century to have been used by Grimhild ; see Wilkina
Saga (pidrek's Saga), cap. 392 : " And now Grimhild goes and

INTRODUCTION. lxxxi

takes a great brand, where the house had burnt, and goes to
Gemot her brother, and thrusts the burning brand in his mouth,
and will know whether he is dead or living. But Gemot was
clearly dead. And now she goes to Gislher and thrusts the
firebrand in his mouth. He was not dead before, but Gislher
died of that. Now King Thidrec of Bern saw what Grimhild
is doing, and speaks to King Attila. ' See how that devil
Grimhild, thy wife, is killing her brothers, the good warriors,
and how many men have lost their lives for her sake, and how
many good men she has destroyed, Huns and Amalungs and
Niflungs ; and in the same way would she bring thee and me
to hell, if she could do it !' Then spake King Attila, ' Surely
she is a devil, and slay thou her, and that were a good work
if thou had done it seven nights ago ! Then many a gallant
fellow were whole that is now dead.' Now King Thidrec
springs at Grimhild and swings up his sword Eckisax, and
hews her asunder at the middle"].

It was believed (as in Polynesia, where Captain Cook's path
was shown in the grass) that the heat of a hero's body might
blast the grass; so Starcad's entrails withered the grass(viii. 272).

It was believed that a severed head might bite the ground
in rage (viii. 274), and there were certainly plenty of opportu-
nities for observation of such cases.

It was believed that a dumb man might be so wrought on
by passion that he would speak (iv. 113), and wholly acquire
speech-power.

Little is told of surgery, but in one case of intestines
protruding owing to wounds, withies were employed to bind
round the trunk and keep the bowels from risk (vi. 198) till
the patient could be taken to a house and his wounds examined
and dressed. It was considered heroic to pay little heed to
wounds that were not dangerous, but just to leave them to
nature.

Personal cleanliness was not higher than among savages
now. A lover is loused by his lady (vi. 189) after the mediae-
val fashion.

Invalids and old people of rank often went about in two- or

lxxxii INTRODUCTION.

i'our-horse cars (iii. 74; v. 170; viii. 27]). The evils of old
age are described (in the tone of Ecclesiastes and of Egil) viii.
269.

Observation of Nature. — This is principally concerned
with animals — the stag's swiftness (ii. 63), the fox's cunning
(ix. 300), the wolf's fierceness (v. 127), the swine's eating of gar-
bage (iii. 52, 94) ; the bear being frightened by fire (ii. 61), the
dog's use as a guardian of sheep or men.

Christianity. — In the first nine books of Saxo, which are
devoted to heathendom, there is not much save the author's
own Christian point of view that smacks of the New Faith.
The apostleships of Ansgarius in Denmark, the conversion of
King Eric (ix. 317), the Christianity of several later Danish
kings, one of whom was (like Olaf Tryggvesson) baptised
in Britain (ix. 318) are also noticed.

Of Christian legends and beliefs, besides the euhemerist
theory, widely held, of the heathen gods (i. 20, etc.) there are
few hints, save the idea that Christ was born in the reign
of Frode, Frode having been somehow synchronised with
Augustus, in whose reign also there was a world-peace
(v. 170).

Of course the christening of Scandinavia is history, and the
mythic books are little concerned with it. The episode in
Adam of Bremen, where the king offers the people, if they
want a new god, to deify Eric, one of their hero-kings, is
eminently characteristic and true.

9. — SAWS AND PROVERBS.

The ethical standpoint of some one or two of Saxo's tales
(especially the story of Eric the Speech-wise, out of which
nearly all the proverbs cited below come), and the picture
they yield, may be completed by the numerous ethical utter-
ances and comments of the author or his characters.

Cool and steadfast bravery (ii. 54-56), generosity, duty,
self-control (ix. 314), honour (in which is mingled love of

Introduction. lxxxiii

fair-play and truthfulness, iv. 109, 1191), a sense of personal
dignity and that heroic shame which forbids a man anything
that will stain his self-respect ; — such are the virtues expected
of a gentleman. Of a lady, cleanliness, fair manners, chastity.
Besides these, the archaic ideal, as expressed in Starcad's
story, rejected luxury of all kinds (vi. 204-7), choice clothing,
high feeding, soft lying,2 indulgence in lust, and pleasure in
juggling and pipe-music.3

1 Hwyrwill, the first treaty -breaker, is notorious (iv. 119). So in
Wolnspa, 70-8, the origin of perjury is noticed when Freya was given to
the Giants : —

"Away went oath, word, and faith-plight,
All the mighty formulas that were between them."

Perjurers are punished with murderers and adulterers in the River of
Swords and Knives ( Woluspa, 214).

2 The sluggard by the ingle on the cushion, or lying abed with his wife
while the hero is out at sea in a storm or fighting, is the mock of Starcad
as of many old poets (cf. Ragnar's Death Song, G. P. B. ii. 342 ; Cormac's
verses, G. P. B. ii. 67-9 ; Tind's poesy, G. P. B. ii. 49 ; Lithsmen's Lay,
G. P. B. ii. 187 ; and the verse of Wigfus Glumsson, ii. 76). The boast
of Ariosvistus was that "the unconquered Germans for fourteen years had
not come under a roof" (Cses., Bell. Gall. i. 36); it was the same as that of
the sea-kings, told in Ynglinga, ch. 34 : — "It was thought that he only
might rightly be called a sea king if ' he never slept under sooty rafter,
And never drank at the chimney corner'."

So in Hornclofe's song of Harold Fairhair : —

" Out at sea he will drink Yule if he may have his will,
That eager prince, and play Frey's game.
From his youth up he loathed the fire-cauldron and sitting by

the hearth,
The warm corner, and the cushion full of down."

(Emended text, 21-4.)

Also found preserved in the French chanson, "Le Couronnement

Loois": —

" Si est mes frere li gentils Aimes

Qui nentre en loge ne feste chevrone

Ainz est toz jors al vent et a lore'."

3 The antagonism between the court-poet and the juggler, who drew
away his audience by his piping and buffoonery, is old, and constantly ex-
pressed in the North. (Cf. G. P. B. ii. 275-9, of Einar Sculason the poet ;

lxxxiv INTRODUCTION.

Yet the heathen hero might boast, like Nestor or Achilleus
(iv. 107) ; drink in excess, though only at fit place and time.
He might be cruel, cunning, and pitiless. He might woo and
win as many concubines as he chose. Not an ignoble ideal on
the whole ; though, as King Alfred pointed out, it lacked
humility and mercy.

Yet even the Christian virtues were not totally unknown.
In heathen days the slaying of women and children and
striplings was not regarded with favour (vii. 239). The fouler
lusts of the Mediterranean nations were abhorred; a man was
dishonoured if he put on any part of a woman's distinctive
clothing (vi. 202). Treason and perjury and filthy sins were,
in the later religion of the Wicking Age at any rate, and
possibly before it, believed to imply punishment in the after-
life in an abode of horror, darkness, poison, stench, and blood,
A model king cares for the sick and those in debt (i. 12).

The fine qualities of animals were appreciated in these tales,
and indeed the animal-world has greatly suffered by the sever-
ance (on the absurd non e cristiano theory) of man from his
former brethren. To the heathen Teuton a bear was almost a
man, stronger, almost as cunning, only less able to reason and
plan, and more easily cast into panic by the unexpected or un-
known (ii. 61). The faithfulness of the clog, who will lick his
master's wounds with healing tongue (vii. 252), and devote
himself to his master's service (viii. 280), of the brave and
true hawk stripping his feathers in his symbolic appeal for his
master (viii. 280), are noticed from the same standpoint as the
Grateful Beast folk-tales, Puss in Boots, etc.

The power of human beauty (viii. 280) over beasts is noticed
also.

Proverbs. — This list is arranged on the alphabetic catch-
word plan, which seemed here the only one feasible. When
there is a well-attested O. N. proverb exactly corresponding to
the Latin form of Saxo, it is given.

also C. P. B. i. 255, 530 ; ii. 327.) Sbarcad is the mouthpiece of eleventh
century Puritanism against the German gluttony and luxury that was
beiny brought in from the South.

INTRODUCTION. lxxxv

Take good advice whoever gives it, ix. 300.

A brave dog goes straight at the bear, v. 155.

Better drink from a beaker than from bent palms, iv. 108.

He cannot bite that is safe in the sack — Ekki bitr J?ad i
belg leggr, v. 155.

It is a filthy bird that fouls its own nest — Sa es fuglin
vestr sem in sialf sins hreiSi drittur, v. 130.

It must be a strong bird to snatch its prey from another's
talons, v. 127.

Blind plans are hurtful, v.

Sweet the bliss that follows bale, v. 143.

Boldness helps the brave, v. 155.

Dark is the lot of the lowly born, and black the coward's
fate, v. 150.

A short boiv shoots swiftly, ix. 300.

Guile-taw shoots treason-shafts, v. 140.

Bridals for young, barrows for old, v. 123.

Bare is the back of the bvotherless — Ber es hverr a baci
nema broftr eigi (Nial S., Grettis S. 88), v. 135.

Better turn back while the car can run — Gott heilum
vagni heim at aka (Egil's S. 38), v, 141.

The cock crows best on his own dunghill, vii. 242.

The coward cannot Hy from fate, vi. 209, 215.

The coward's boast comes to him home, v. 133.

There is no measure in a coivard's fear, or a wicked man's
ill-will, v. 133.

Measureless is the ill-will and boding of a coivard, v. 133.

It is hard to tether the unfoaled colt to the crib, v. 139.

Men fight by day, devils by night, vii. 224.

When one dog begins to bark the rest will join in, v. 135.

Dull edge and point should only carve soft meat, v. 138.

Eagles claw face to face — OndurSa cloasc orno (Elling's
Dirge, Sighwat, C. P. B. ii. 157), v. 127.

He that goes against his elders is a castaway, v. 138.

He that falls will seldom fatten, v. 155.

W ay-far er find cup handier than loof, iv. 108.

Far-faring ever hurt fasters, iv. 108.

lxxxvi INTRODUCTION.

Eacli man's fate snatches him off, vi. 215.
Fate naught can change, vii. 245.
Noble fathers have noble sons, vi. 214.

If the sons were like the father a gale would break on me,
iv. 111.

The fool is known by his work, v. 139.

The fool knows no measure — Ekki es heimscum hofs at
leita, v. 135.

It is ill to plead against a fool — Hit er at deila vvS heimsca
hali (Old Wolsung Play, 260), v. 133.

The gods bring home foolish words to the speaker, v. 133.
It is foolish for few to fight a host, v. 134.
It takes cunning to catch the fox, ix. 300.
A friend is known at need, v. 137.
None can overcome Frode, v. 152.
Gifts should be handed, not hurled, v. 141.
They that grasp at other men's goods often lose their own,
v. 127.

Grasp all lose all ; or, Who grasps at two oft loses both,
v. 127.

No man is hale that does not hold himself, v. 140.
The hand may save the head — Skyllr es hendi at hofdi
bera, v. 145.

The hand is not long fain of blow — " Skamma stund verSr
hond hoggi fegin" (Nial S. 42), v. 137.

Strong hand is oft hid under shabby cloak, ii. 44 ; vi. 190.

Whatever happens must first happen once, v. 154.

Seek a good man in a hard stress, v. 137.

It is hard for a hunchback to fight a warrior, v. 140.

Lonely are the hapless and helpless, v. 163.

More haste worse speed, v. 134.

Hasty counsels harm, v. 134.

When you hate a man all his deeds are hateful, v. 132.

Who falls on the hide should have the hide, v. 138.

There is strength in the home-bider, v. 132.

A blunt knife should seek the joints, v. 137.

Dark is the lot of the loivly born, v. 150.

INTRODUCTION. lx

XXVll

The Icing's luck is home luck, v. 132.

Better defence for a king a few true men than many
traitors, v. 138.

It is bad for kings to seek brides from afar, or match save
with neighbours, v. 123.

Fair faith becomes a king better than crafty cunning, v. 138.

The kinsman s hand is the best help, v. 137.

If mending will do, why cut off? v. 138.

Meat from the lean — Af magru seal mat hafa, v. 1 37.

Fear not raven at rest nor ragged old man, vi. 192.

Bridals for young, barrows for old, vi. 123.

Quick and careful do not go together, v. 139.

Fear not raven at rest, nor ragged old man, vi. 192.

Sailing is quicker than rowing — Bidendr byr eiga en
bradir handa rodr, v. l^S. f3&

Tend the sapling, cut down the old tree, viii. 273.

Stem becomes stern when the sea gets up, v. 129.

Land is ruled by lip, sea by hand, v. 133.

Rowing goes through the sea, lying through the land, v.
137.

Shameless is the robber that first seeks a settlement, v. 153.

A sick man must pick his way, v. 137.

Few heed the words of the silent man — Far hyggr ]?eg-
janda ]?orf (Christ. Wisdom, 116), v. 139.

Use your slaves to spare yourself, v. 127.

Better the slave perish than the master, v. 127.

A slave is a false friend — lilt es at eiga J?rgel at einka vin
(Orwar-Odd S.), v. 134.

The smiter has often short joy of his stroke [cf. Nial S.],
v. 137.

The smith keeps the tongs to spare his fingers, v. 127.

The soldier fights according to his pay, v. 153.

A rotten stock seldom shoots, v. 161.

Any port in a storm, v. 161.

It is hard to tug against the strong — lilt es vr5 ramman
reip at draga (Nial S. 6), v. 140.

In strong need seek sure helpers, v. 137.

lxxxviii INTRODUCTION.

A strong hand is often hid under a sorry cloak, ii. 44 ; vi.
190.

Teach the teachable, ix. 300.

Threats ought not to come before vengeance, iv. 111.

A guiltless mind makes a free tongue, v. 134.

The traitor is as much a snare to himself as to them that
trust him, v. 133.

A traitor and a wizard are as bad to themselves as to their
fellows, v. 133.

A trick is fair, a lie is foul, v. 110.

The unlooked-for often happens, v. 154.

A noble vow should be well fulfilled, iv. 109.

He must %vake late and early that would win another's
glory, v. 155.

The warp shows the bent of the wood, v. 135.

He that would win must strive, v. 153.

A wicked man's work seldom pleases, v. 132.

The wicked hate to hear of others' welfare, vi. 211.

Seek a wife among neighbours, v. 123.

No man is wise that will not be warned, v. 140.

It is wise for youth to bow to age's wisdom, iv. 118.

A wise man must be taught by a wiser man, v. 138.

Prophecy is a wise man's guess — Spa er spaco geta, v. 150.

Foster a wolf and find a thief — Skalat ulf ala ungan lengi
(Long Brunhild Lay), v. 133.

The ivolf has made friends of fighting swine, v. 1 27.

When we see the ivolf's ear we know he is not far off — par
es mer ulfs von es ec eyro se'c (Western Wolsung Lay, 54),
v. 133.

Wolf breeds wolf, vi. 214.

No sleeping wolf ever yet caught the prey — Sialdan Hgg-
jande ulf loer urn getr (Guest Wisdom), v. 155.

Often forgive a woman s faults, v. 138.

No man ever yet won the day by snoring, v. 155.

Each ivork has its own movements, v. 140.

Bid wrath bide a while, v. 134.

Many of Saxo's similes are forcible and idiomatic : — .

INTRODUCTION. lxxxix

To stick to a mate like down to shag, v. 144.
Our hick is not yet off the reefs, v. 145.
To thrust out the hand to shield the head, v. 1 45.
More fickle than the winds, v. 146.

To fall to pieces like an unbound faggot — Laus er band-
laus baggi, v. 145.

As mattock to weed, vi. 215.

As full of quibbles as a cook, v. 132.

Historic saws are met with : —

" If the little pigs knew what the old boar was suffering
fchey would break in and free him," ix. 314.
Frode ruled fifty kings.
" I hear my son's sword," quoth Wermund.

1 0. — FOLK-HISTORY.

Among the legends given by our author there are a number
of significant historical allusions.

Thus he describes the characteristics of the Finns (v. 165)
in war and peace. They are described as migratory hunters,
good skee riders, javelin casters, users of broad arrows,
magicians.

Of the Irish (v. 160). They are light-armoured, swift,
dangerous in flight, have their hair cut short behind, use
calthrops, cast javelins backward.

Of the Icelanders (viii. 257). They are tall, brave, good at
single combats, at archery, at verse-making, and knowledge
[of the past].

Of the Norwegians (vii. 240). The pride and cowardice of
the Norwegians are attacked.1

Of the Danes (v. 168). Their drunkenness is rebuked and
laughed over.

The Geography of the old days is noticed — the Seven
Provinces of Norway (v. 154), the provinces of the Danes,

1 Saxo is, of course, reflecting as a patriotic and jealous Dane, not
writing as an historian here.

XC INTRODUCTION.

Funen, Scania, Jutland (a double earldom), vii. 239, all less
important in Saxo's eyes than Zealand, the centre of the
monarchy (v. 171), which will not accept a woman king
(viii. 265).

The facts are noticed of river courses and channels having
changed since days of yore (v. 239); of tillage having increased
in Denmark since old times (vii. 23) ; of stone heaps found in
forests that mark the toil of ancient times ; clearing the ground
for tillage (viii. 285).

The colonization of Halegoland caused by the rush from
Frode's conquests (v. 162), is a very curious tradition, but more
likely to be true of Harold Fairhair. For this northern strip
of coast was but slightly peopled in Alfred's days, as we know
from the story of Ohthere, who was himself a Halegolander,
and probably of the family of Ottar Heimsce and of other
prominent persons, such as Klyp [cf. Hyndloliod, C. P. B.
i. 225 ; Egils S. c. iv].

That colonization [of the Western islands] and sea roving
[on the West-way] are ascribed to pressure from without, in
the shape of Frode's strong and long arm, is also noteworthy,
and, if we take Frode as merely a type, true (v. 162).

The fugitives that fled from the ^reat fight at Alstid to
Scotland (vii. 239) recall the facts attested by the unimpeach-
able authority of Landnamaboc, that Hafursfirth battle led
to the flight to Scotland of many sea-rovers who afterwards
came on to Iceland when the North British seas got too
orderly for them.

Old roads, paved no doubt like King Hrothgar's Causewaj^ in
the Lay of Beowulf, 320-4, are ascribed to Frode (v. 151), and
said to have been made by his host : a tradition that diml}r
points to such soldier road-makers as worked and fought
under the Roman eagles, and left their works as an everlasting
memorial.

Famine. — The not infrequent occurrence of famine in old
days is amply illustrated (v. 157), the straits to which men are
driven, so that they will devour fungi, horses, dogs, and even
turn cannibals (i. 27 ; v. 161). But it is most interesting to see

INTRODUCTION. XC1

that suicide by mutual slaughter, decliffment, or other ways
[as in Beda's account of the Sussex famine], and emigration,
are mentioned. It is proposed in one case to exile those older
and younger than the full age of active life, but this is opposed,
and exile by lot is decreed (viii. 289). The shifts by which
food was sought to be husbanded are illustrated by a comic
story (viii. 282).

The evidence of place-names is, as has been noticed above,
largely used by Saxo (iii. 74-6).

Saxo is so far influenced by scholastic theory, from which,
like Are, he keeps himself commendably free, that he notices
Dudo's Danaus-hypothesis and translates Asgard by Byzan-
tium (iii. 80), and the Straits of Gibraltar apparently by
Hellespont. Why he makes Gudrun's sons to be Helles-
pontines it is difficult to say.

11. — FOLK-TALES.

There might be a classification of Saxo's stories akin to that
of the Irish poets, Battles, Sieges, Voyages. Rapes, Cattle
Forays,etc. ; and quite apart from the historic element, however
faint and legendary, there are a set of stories ascribed by him,
or rather his authorities, to definite persons, which had, even
in his day, probably long been the property of Tis, their
original owners not being known owing to lapse of time and
the wear of memory, and the natural and accidental catastro-
phies that impair the human record. Such are the Dragon-
Slayer stories. In one type of these (vi. 181) the hero (Frith-
laf) is cast on a desolate island, and warned by a dream to
attack and slay a dragon guarding treasure. He wakes, sees
the dragon arise out of the waves, apparently, to come ashore
and go back to the cavern or mound wherein the treasure lay.
His scales are too hard to pierce ; he is terribly strong, lashing
trees down with his tail, and wearing a deep path through the
wood and over the stones with his huge and perpetual bulk ;
but the hero, covered with hide-wrapped shield against the
poison, gets down into the hollow path, and pierces the monster

XC11 INTRODUCTION.

from below, afterward rifling its underground store and
carrying off its treasure.

Again (ii. 38) the story is repeated ; the hero [Frode Had-
dingsson] is warned by a countryman of the island-dragon
and its hoard, is told to cover his shield and body with bulls'
hides against the poison, and smite the monster's belly. The
dragon goes to drink, and, as it is coming back, it is attacked,
slain, and its treasure lifted precisely as before. The analogies
with the Beowulf and Sigfred stories are evident ; but no
great poet has arisen to weave the dragon-slaying intimately
into the lives of Frode and Frithlaf as they have been woven
into the tragedy of Sigfred the wooer of Brunhild and, if
Dr. Vigfusson be right, the conqueror of Varus, or into the
story of Beowulf, whose real engagements were with sea-
monsters not fiery dragons.

Another type is that of the Loathly Worm (ix. 302). A
king out hunting1 (Herod or Herraud, King of Sweden), for
some unexplained reason brings home two small snakes as
presents for his daughter. They wax wonderfully, have to
be fed, a whole ox a day, and proceed to poison and waste
the country-side. The wretched king is forced to offer his
daughter [Thora] to anyone who will slay them. The hero
[Ragnar] devises a dress of a peculiar kind (by help of his
nurse, apparently), in this case, woolly mantle and hairy
breeches all frozen and ice-covered to resist the venom, then
strapping his spear to his hand, he encounters them boldly
alone. The courtiers hide " like frightened little girls", and
the king betakes him to a " narrow shelter", an euphemism
evidently of Saxo's, for the scene is comic. The king comes
forth when the hero is victorious, and laughing at his hairy
legs, nicknames him Shaggy-breech, and bids him to the feast.
Ragnar fetches up his comrades, and apparently seeks out the
frightened courtiers (no doubt with appropriate quip, omitted
by Saxo, who hurries on), feasts, marries the king's daughter,
and begets on her two fine sons.

1 In modern England he is fishing on a Sunday, whence all the
trouble.

INTRODUCTION. XC111

Of somewhat similar type is the proud Maiden guarded by
Beasts (ix. 301). Here the scene is laid in Gaulardale in Nor-
way. The lady is Ladgerda, the hero Ragnar. Enamoured of
the maiden by seeing her prowess in war,1 he accepts no rebuffs,
but leaving his followers, enters the house, slays the guardian
Bear and Dog, thrusting one through with a spear and
throttling the other with his hand. The lady is won and wed,
and two daughters and a son [Frith laf] duly begotten. The
story of Alf and Alfhild (vii. 228) combines several types.
There are the tame snakes, the baffled suitor's heads staked to
terrify other suitors, and the hero using red-hot iron and spear
to slay the two reptiles.2

The Proud Lady [cf. Kudrun and the Niebelungen, and
Are's story of the queen that burnt her suitors] (iv. 102)
appears in Hermintrude, Queen of Scotland, who battles and
slays her lovers, but is outwitted by the hero [Hamlet], and,
abating her arrogance, agrees to wed him. This seems an
obvious accretion in the original Hamlet story, and probably
owing not to Saxo, but to his authority.

The Beggar that stole the Lady, viii. 282 (told of Snio
Siwaldson and the daughter of the King of the Goths), with
its brisk dialogue, must have been one of the most artful of
the folk- tales worked on by Saxo or his informants ; but it is
only half told, unfortunately.

The Crafty Soaker (viii. 283) is another excellent comic folk-
tale. A terrible famine made the king [Snio] forbid brewing,
to save the barley for bread, and abolished all needless toping.
The Soaker baffled the king by sipping, never taking a full
draught. Rebuked, he declared that he never drank, but only
sucked a drop. This was forbidden him for the future, so he

1 She helps Ragnar to avenge the honour of certain injured ladies, and,
winning the victory for him, retires and spurns his offers of marriage.

2 The stake-part of the story is evidently wrongly mixed into this tale.
The story of the massacre of the king's daughter's suitors by Grep and the
staking of their heads in her bower (v. 126), is based upon historical
remembrance, in all probability. Such things are not uncommon in
barbaric communities.

xciv INTRODUCTION.

sopped his bread in ale, and in that inconvenient manner con-
tinued to get drunk, excusing himself with the plea that though
it was forbidden to drink or sip beer, it was not forbidden to
eat it. When this was in turn prohibited, the Soaker gave
up any pretence, and brewed and drank unabashed, telling the
angry king that he was celebrating his approaching funeral
with due respect, which excuse led to the repeal of the
obnoxious decree. A good Rabelaisian tale, that must have
been wide-spread among the Danish topers, whose powers both
Saxo and Shakespeare have celebrated, from actual experience
no doubt.

The Magicians tricks to elude pursuit (v. 1651), so com-
mon an incident in our fairy tales, e.g., Michael Scot's flight, is
ascribed here to the wonder-working and uncanny Finns, who,
when pursued, cast behind them successively three pebbles,
which become to their enemies' eyes mountains, then snow,
which appeared like a roaring torrent. But they could not
cast the glamour on Arngrim a third time, and were forced to
submit. The glamour here and in the case of the breaking of
Balder's barrow is akin to that which the Druid puts on the
sons of Uisnach.

The tale of the king (vii. 240) who shuts up his daughter
in an " earth-house" or underground chamber with treasures
(weapons and gold and silver), in fear of invasion, looks like a
bit of a folk-tale, such as the Hind in the Wood, but it may
have a traditional base of some kind here.

A folk- tale, very imperfectly narrated, is the Clever Kings
Daughter (i. 31), who evidently in the original story had to
choose her suitor by his feet (as the giantess in the prose
Edda chooses her husband), and was able to do so by the
device she had practised of sewing up her ring in his leg
sometime before, so that when she touched the flesh she could
feel the hardness of the ring beneath the scar.

Bits of folk-tales are the Device for escajring threatened
death by putting a log in one's bed (viii. 297), (as in our Jack

1 The trick of scattering coin to delay pursuit (Atalanta story) is in
Denmark ascribed to Rolf, ii. 55.

INTRODUCTION. XCV

the Giant-Killer). The device, as old as David's wife, of
dressing up a dumby (here a basket with a dog inside, covered
outside with clothes), while the hero escapes, is told of
Eormenric, the mighty Gothic King of kings, who, like Walter
of Aquitaine, Theodoric of Verona, Ecgberht, and Arminius,
was an exile in his youth. This traditional escape of the two
lads from the Scyths should be compared with the true story
in Paul the Deacon of his little ancestor's captivity and bold
and successful stroke for freedom.

Disguise plays a great part in the folk-tales used by Saxo.
Woden disguises himself in a cowl on his earthly travels, and
heroes do the same (vi. 192) ; a king disguises himself as a
slave at his rival's court, to try and find occasion of slaying
him (vi. 176) ; a hero wraps himself up in skins (i. 13), like
Alleleirah.

Escaped recognition is accordingly a feature in many of
these simple but artistic plots. A son is not known by his
mother (ii. 54) in the story of Hrolf.

Other Devices1 are exemplified, such as the "booby-trap"
loaded with a millstone, which slays a hateful and despised
tyrant, imposed by a foreign conqueror (viii. 297) ; evasion
by secret passages (v. 148), and concealment'2 in underground
vaults or earth-houses (vii. 218, 240). The feigning of mad-
ness to escape death occurs iii. 88 ; vii. 218, as well as in the
better-known Hamlet story.3 These stratagems are universal
in folk-history.

To Eric, the clever and quick of speech, is ascribed an excel-
lent sailor's smuggling trick to hide slaughtered cattle by
sinking them till the search is over (v. 131).

The Hero's Mighty Childhood (like David's) of course
occurs (i. 11) when he binds a bear with his girdle. Sciold is
full grown at fifteen (i. 11), and Hadding is full grown in
extreme youth (i. 20). The hero in his boyhood slays a full-

1 Our Edmund Ironside was slain by a trap set in a gong.

2 The death of Earl Hacon in his concealment underground is famous.

3 David's feigned madness, Odusseus' pretended idiocy, and much later
cases, will show how true this is to archaic life.

XCV1 INTRODUCTION.

grown man and champion (vii. 241). The cinder-biting, lazy
stage of a mighty youtli is exemplified vii. 240 ; viii. 272.
[Cf. Gretter, who in all this part of his story is purely legend-
ary, 0. P. B. i. 511, 568 ; ii. 501.]

The fierce eyes of the hero or heroine (vii. 250-3), which can
daunt an assassin as could the piercing glance of Marius, are
the " falcon eyes" of the Eddie Lays.

The shining, effulgent, illuminating hair of the hero,
which gives light in the darkness, is noticed here (vii. 228), as
it obtains in Cuaran's thirteenth century English legend.

The wide-spread tale of the City founded on a site marked
out by a hide cut into finest thongs, occurs ix. 315, told of
Hella and Iwarus exactly as our Kentishmen told it of
Hengist.

The Tell-Egil story, App. I (ix. 329), is (as in the Icelandic
saga) ascribed to Palna-Toke [Toke of the Shafts. See C. P. B.
ii. 301 on the Jom-pirates]. It is probable that Toke's nick-
name attracted the tale.

The incidents of the hero sleeping by a rill (iv. 101), of the
guarded king's daughter, with her thirty attendants (v. 122),
the king's son keeping sheep (ii. 43), are part of the regular
stock incidents in European folk-tales. So are the Nausicaa
incident of the king's daughter going a washing (i. 13), the
hero disguising himself as a woman and winding wool (like a
second Heracles), (ix. 306).

There are a certain number of stories, which only occur in
Saxo and in our other Northern sources with attributions,
though they are of course legendary ; such are :

The Everlasting Battle [v. 158 ; cf. C P. B. ii. 7, 563] between
Hedhin and Hogne, a legend connected with the great Bri-
singa-men story, and paralleled by the Cordelia-tale among
the Britons.

The Hamlet story is discussed in an especial Appendix, III,
with regard both to source and origin.

The story of the Children preserved (vii. 217) is not very
clearly told, and Saxo seems to have euhemerized. It is
evidently of the same type as the Lionel-Lancelot story in the

INTRODUCTION. XCV11

Arthurian cycle. Two children, ordered to be killed, are
saved by the slaying of other children in their place, and
afterwards by their being kept and named as dogs ; they
come to their own and avenge their wrongs.

The Journey to Hell story is told of Eric, who goes to a
far land to fetch a princess back, and is successful. It is
apparently an adventure of Swipdag, if everyone had their
rights. It is also told of Thorkill, whose adventures are
rather of the True Thomas type,

The Test of Endurance by sitting between fires, and the
relief of the tortured and patient hero by a kindly trick (ii. 54),
is a variant of the famous Eddie Lays concerning Agnar.

The Robbers of the Island, evidently comes from an Icelandic
source (vi. 173) [cf. the historic Holmveria Saga and Icelandic
folk-tales of later date], the incident of the hero slaying his
slave, that the body might be mistaken for his, is archaic in
tone ; the powerful horse recalls Grani, Bayard, and even Sleip-
ner ; the dog which had once belonged to Unfoot (Of ote), the
giant shepherd [cf. its analogues in old Welsh tales], is not
quite assimilated or properly used in this story. It seems
(as Dr. Rydberg suspects) a mythical story coloured by the
Icelandic relater with memory full of the robber-bands of his
own land.

The stratagem of Star cad, who tried even in death to slay
his slayer, seems an integral part of the Starcad story ; as
much as the doom of three crimes which are to be the price
for the threefold life that a triple man or giant should enjoy
* The noose story in Starcad [cf. that told of Bicce in the
Eormenric story, viii. 280] is also integral.

§8. — Saxo's Materials and Methods.

We may consider Saxo as having before him, besides his
classic works, which he used for the collecting of his Latin
style (Valerius Maximus, Ammianus Marcellinus (?), Mar-
tianus Capella), practically three sets of sources.

XCvili INTRODUCTION.

A. Latin Historical Library. — Beda (+ 642). Historia
Ecclesiastica, i. 15 sqq., mentioned i. 10, " N on minima pars
cliuini stili, qui in Anglia ortus, sanctissimis suorum
uoluminum thesauris res patrias sociare cure habuit eqve
ad religionem pertinere iudicans, patrie facta Uteris illustrare
et res diuinas conscribere" Bede's example may well have
heartened Saxo to his task.

Adam of Bremen (c. 1080). The sketch of Scandinavian
geography in the prologue seems inspired by Adam's similar
survey ; and other particulars in the Christian books may be
drawn from Adam.

Dudo (c. 1000), cited as Dudo rerum aquitanicarum scriptor,
as to the Danes coming from the Danai ; the first book of his
work, De Moribus et actis primorum Normannie ducum, con-
taining the following words : "Daci nuncupantnr a suis Danai
uel Dani glorianturque se ex Antenore progenitos qui quum
Troie fuerint depopulate mediis elapsus Achiuis Iliricos fines
penetrauit cum suis"

B. Icelandic Sources. — That Saxo had Icelandic testimony
in both prose and poetry, oral or written, is certain, and would
be certain if he had not taken care to inform us (xiv. 294)
that he had an Icelandic friend of special historic skill : —
"HabebatauteminclientelaAbsalonArnoldumTylensem. . .
nee minus antiquitatis quam diuinationis peritus, sollerti
historiarum narracione callebat" Moreover, in his Preface (3)
Saxo speaks of his Icelandic authorities, of their wide know-
ledge, industry, and special skill in history, and gratefully
acknowledges that he has "woven together no small part of the
present work after their narrative", and that he deferred to
their judgment, which he had proved by experience to be ripe
and founded on broad " acquaintance with antiquity". " Nee
Tylensium industria silencio oblitteranda, qui cum ob nati-
uam soli sterilitatem luxurie nutrimentis carentes, officia
continue sobrietatis exerceant, omniaque uite momenta ad
excolendam alienoruin operum noticiam conferre soleant,
inopiam ingenio pensant. Cunctarum quippe nacionvut
res gestas cognosse memorieqae mandare volujitatis loco repu-

INTRODUCTION. XC1X

tard,non minor is glorie iudicantes alieuas uirtutes disserere
quam proprias exhibere. Quorum thesauros historiarum
rerum pignoribus refertos curiosius consultos haut paruam
presentis operis partem ex eorum relacionis imitatione con-
texui ; nee arbitros habere contempsi qwos tanta netustatis
pericia callere cognouir

Of what kind and character the Icelandic sources Saxo had
before him were, it is possible to judge pretty clearly. The
mediaeval Icelandic compositions dealing with old traditions,
now known as Fornaldar Sogur,1 are precisely on a par with
his narratives in feeling and matter ; but as many of them are
a century or more later than Saxo, one naturally finds in them a
good deal of superfluous and obviously fictitious matter from
which Saxo is commendably free.

That some of his foreign sources were written is most
probable ; one or two fair-sized vellums belonging to Arnold
might easily have contained all the Old Northern material Saxo
has used. That the different authorities he used were not all
from the same compiler's hand or voice is evident from the fact
that he notes the differences in his authorities (iii. 80), exactly
such as would arise from using sagas touching on the same
event, but composed by different authors.

That Saxo's texts of these sagas were better than ours, briefer,
less interpolated, and with better verse, seems likely. The
Starcad Saga, the Eric Saga, and the Hadding Saga that Saxo
had before him, must have been better than any of the Fornal-
dar Sogur as they have reached us.

C. Danish Traditions — whether handed down in poems or
in prose folk-tales, or in those historic inscriptions in Runes,
of which there were doubtless many more extant in Saxo's
days than now exist. Of the Runes our author speaks much
in his prologue. They were of very various dates, from the
old heathen carvings of the early centuries of our era down to
the Christian inscriptions of Sweden, some of which were not

1 Ed. C. C. Rafn, Copenhagen, vols, i-iii, 1829-30. There is hardly
one of these but contains some trait or event that Saxo is concerned
with.

</2

C INTRODUCTION.

ancient in Saxo's own time. They are seldom of great direct
historic value, save the royal epitaphs of the Danish kings,
but they sometimes mention incidentally a famous battle or a
foreign foray, and they yield much indirect testimony to the
culture of their authors. The Runes of Jelling, which Harald
Blue-tooth, King of the Danes, set up as a memorial to his
father and mother, are well known. There are some thousands
of runic inscriptions known, and of these about 200 within the
bounds of the old Danish kingdom.

As for the Danish folk-tales and poems, it does not appear
(with the exception of the epitaph of Hiarn over Frothe) that
Saxo has made much use of Danish poems in his history. It
may be that with regard to Od and Sigrid (?), Alf and Alfhild,
Halfdan and Syrutha, he leant upon fragments of vernacular
poetry that have now all perished. But judging from the
faint indications we can perceive, it is probable that most of
his verse, without much exception, is drawn from Western
sources, and does not draw its immediate origin from Denmark.
With regard to folk-traditions, on the other hand, much of
Saxo's material is obviously native ; as will appear by
Dr. Olrik's table and the discussion below. It is even possible
to prove that Saxo was not content with the folk-lore of one
province, but that he gathered traditions from several earl-
doms of the Danish monarchy, and even went as far afield as
Norway for local memories.

That the Danish prose sources Saxo used were not written
appears most likely. A Danish king's list, in Danish or
Latin (besides an Icelandic list such as Langfedgatal) he
may wrell have had, but there is no trace of any regular
Danish sagas. A few memoranda, such as Frode's Laws, a
brief tale, a prose paraphrase of a lost or vanishing poem, we
may concede, of course, but hardly a Danish vernacular history
in prose or verse.

The collecting of legends was a new thing. Saxo was its
pioneer in Denmark, as Geoffrey was in England. It grew, as a
taste of the thirteenth century, in nearly all European countries.
In England we find traditions of Alfred and Havelock and Horn

INTRODUCTION. CI

set down in that period, and it is the greatest Latin historian
of the thirteenth century, Matthew Paris, that deigns to put
into his own monastic tongue the ancient English legend of
the two Offas. Still more curious is it to notice William the
Little of Newbury, the tiresome opponent of Arthur's Geoffrey,
collecting and inserting in his own grave and unimaginative
chronicle such folk-tales as the Green Children that came
from Underground. Stray folk-tales, such as those of the
type of Herodias and Young Tamlane may, indeed, have been
recorded in Latin by the individual interest of stray chroniclers,
but that there was any written collection of Danish folk-tales
before Saxo is in the highest degree improbable.

Can we distinguish between the Danish and non-Danish
sources of Saxo ? By comparing the forms of the proper
names, by the absence or presence of verse, and by the
attitude preserved toward the supernatural and toward other
points, Dr. Olrik (Aarb. f Nord. Oldk. og. Hist, 1892) has
ingeniously made out a classification of Saxo's vernacular
material into Icelandic-Norwegian and Danish, as follows :

Icelandic- Norwegian. Danish.

( 1. Gram, i. 12-20. Verse. L Dan, i- 10.

J 2. Hadding, i. 20-37. Verse. 2. Humble-Leer, i. 11.

[3. Frode, ii. 38-50. Verse. 3. Sciold, i. 12.

4. Hother, iii. 69-82. 4. Helge, ii. 51-53.

5. Frode vegetus, iv. 117-8. 5- Rolf, ii. 53-68 ? [Bearca-Mal?]

Verse.

6. Fridlaf celer, iv. 188-120. 6. Balder, iii. 70-77.

7. Frode and Eric, v. 121-169. 7. Rorik, iii. 82-85.

Verse.

8. Arngrim's Sons, Arrow-Odd, 8. Orwendil, iii. 85-87.

v. 165-6. [Scioldunga, Am-
grim, Arrow-Odd S.]

9. Fridlaf, vi. 172-181. Verse. 9. Amlet, iii. 87-96, iv. 97-106.

10. Starcad and Wicar, vi. 181-7. 10- Wermund and Uffe, iv. 106-

[Ynglinga S., Gautrecs S.] 117.

11. Halfdan Bergramme. viv. 216- 11. Dan. iv. 117-

224. Verse. [Asmund and
Egil's SS.]

Cll

INTRODUCTION.

Icelandic-Norwegian.
12. Harald War-tooth, vii-viii. 247

12.

Danish.
Huglec. iv. 117.

13. Heclin and Hogne, v. 158-GO ?

14. Frode's Laws, v. 152, 1G4.

15. Frode's Death, v. 170-1.

64. [Scioldunga, Sogubrot.]

13. Ole, vii. 250-5, viii. 264-5.

Verse. [Scioldunga, Arn-
grim.]

14. Omund, viii. 265-8. Arrow-

Odd S.]

15. Thorkill Traveller, viii. 285-

96. [Eric VidforleS., Nor-
wegian and Faroese Ballads.]

16. Ref, viii. 296-7. [Gautrecs S.] 16. Hiarn, vi. 172, 176-7. Verse.

17. Ragnar, ix. 298-316. [Rag- 17. Frode in Saxony, vi. 182, 187-8.

nar S.]
[18. Starcad and Hather, viii. 268- 18. Starcad-Helga, vi. 190-199.

74. Verse.1] Verse?

[19. Hildiger, vii. 244. Asmund's 19. Starcad-Ingild, vi. 199-215.

Saga. Verse.]

Verse ?

20. Halfdan-Sigrutha, vii. 224.

21. Od and Sigrid, vii. 225-7.

Verse ?

22. Alf and Alfhild, vii. 228-30.

23. Hagbard and Signe, vii. 230-9.

Verse ?

24. Haldan and Harald War-tooth's

Youth, vii. 239-247. Verse ?
See Hildiger, opposite.

25. Ermanaric, viii. 275-81 ?

26. Snio, viii. 281-5.

27. Ubbe, Ragnar's son, ix. 306-7.

This table of Dr. Olrik we print as the last and best results
of a brilliant and sagacious scholar, without agreeing to it in
every particular ; thus, Rolf's story, D. 5, is clearly founded
mostly on Bearca-Mal. Bearca-Mal (as we have argued in

1 We have supplied in brackets what seem to be accidental omissions
of Dr. Olrik. The Lay of Starcad, of which only two lines survive in the
vernacular, must, we believe, have come to Saxo from the Old Northern.
The bit as to the sepulchre at Rolung may well be an addition of Saxo's
own, from local information. The Hildiger Verses are connected with
Hildebrand's Lay, C. P. B. i.

INTRODUCTION. Clll

Eng. Hist Rev.) was, as Saxo knew it, a poem composed in the
Wickingtide, probably in the Western Isles, and upon the
model of such older poems as Finn's Lay (of which a fragment
in old English still survives), and other favourite Waking or
Rousing Lays. It is told in the Kings' Lives, and so far as
the incidents connected with S. Olaf's death their authority is
to be respected, that Bearca-Mal was sung on the morning of
the day of the battle of Sticklestead, 1030.

So the tale of Hedin and Rogue, D. 13, was well known in
the West. Scaldscapa-mal recounts it (0. P. B. ii. 5), and later
Sorla-^attr deals with it.

Again, the story of Hagbard and. Signe, D. 23, was widely
spread, and as far back as 900 known in Norway as Thiodolf 's
Ynglingatal (74) witnesses.

The story of Eovmenric, D. 25, was as well known in the
West as in the East, as may be seen from the Old Hamdis-mal,
the Shield Song of Bragi, as well as the late paraphrase
Wolsunga, and the Lay of Beowulf and Widsith and Deor
shows its popularity in England.

The tale of Otherus (Odr and Syritha), D. 21, as far as the
verses go, looks rather as if it belonged to the school of poetry
represented by Skirnis-mal.

Let us take the evidence of the verse separately. Six of
Saxo's books are adorned with poems, in which the metres of
Martianus Capella are forced into the service of Teutonic
poesy, and there is no part of Saxo's work more characteristic
in style than these curious pieces. In the list below the poems
are tabulated with such parallels and originals as have been
recognised. Cf. G. P. B. i. 381-90.

Book I, i. Bessus and Groa Conspicor ; cf. Helge's Lay, Lay i. IB Gram.

of Atle and Rimegerd

,. ii. Gram and Groa Ne timeat ; cf. Skirnis-mal i. 16 „

iii. Bessus Gram ferus i. 17 „

iv. Gram Solus in oeto ; cf. Hialmer's Lay i. 19 „

v. Harthgrepa ^uid tibi )cf. Skirnis-mal {*" 21 Hadding-

„ vi. „ NepaueasJ U

vii. Dead man to Hadding Inf eris me ; cf . Hervara's Lay,

Burden

viii. Old man to Hadding Hinc te i- 24

CIV

INTRODUCTION.

Book

[, ix.

Asmundus

Quis nostra )

Hadding

„

Asmundus

Quid gladio J

„

xi.

Spirit

Tetro penates ; cf . Sturlunga Ditty,
C. P. B. i. 360

)»

xii.

Spirit

Quid me sic ; cf. Darrada-lioS

•»

xiii.

Woman

Seu pede rura ; cf . Curse on Dag
in Helge and Sigrun's Lay and
Boslu-bsen.

xiv.

nadingus et Uffo

Quid moror = Dialogue of Niord
and Scathe and a lost Lay

XV.

,, „

Belua nata

Bk. II,

Indigena

Insula non longe ; cf. Beowulf's
Lay and Gripe's Lay

ii.

Frode.

ii.

Suanhuita

Monstra quidem ; cf. Helge Lay, i.
and Hervora's Lay

ii.

iii.

Ragnar

Nos homines

ii.

„

iv.

Suanhuita

In gladio.

ii.

Hialto Biareo, etc.

Ocius euigilet = Biarea-mal. Cf.
Finn's Lay

ii.

Hrolf.

Bk. v,

Grep et Erieus

Stulte quis es ; Flyting

1321

Frode and

ii.

Gotuara et Erieus

Quando tuam ; Flyting

139

iii.

Erieus et Olimarus

Quid sibi uult ; cf. Lay of Atli and

154

„

iv. Erieus

VI, i.

" ii.

iii.

iv.

VI.

vii.
viii.
Bk. VII, i.

u.
iii.

iv.
v.

vi.
„ vii.
„ viii.
„ ix.

xi.
Bk. VIII, i.

ii.

Asmundus
Hiarnus
Olores
Fridlenus

»
Stafeatherus

Haldanus

Rimegerd
Hercule deprendi = Hun's March ;

cf. p. 155
Quid stupetis ; Burden
Frothonem Dani ; Epitaph
Dum mare uertit
Cum sis gigas ; Satyre
Sanguine suffusos ; Satyre
Unde stupet

Cedat imbellis \ Satyre

Amore, queso / Satyre

Rex Ingelle uale

En rude quod = Wigfus' Verse to

Earl Hacon, Iomsvikinga S.,

C P. B. i. 365
Num meis mauis
Hie candoris inops; cf. Phyllis and

Flora
Quid miri tenerum
Si captum genitor

Otharus
Signes.

Hagbarthus

Hagbarthus et Signes

„ „ Nunc insolens

Hagbarthus Ocius o inuenes

Hildegerus Collibet alternis = Hildebrand's

Lay, Asmund Cappabana S.
Haldanus etGy writha Patris sceptra ; Dialogue
Grimo et Gunno Simus nempe licet

Starcatherus Ut sine regressu \ = Staikad's j

„ Preterea Hathere/ Lay

v. 157 „ .,

v. 163 „
vi. 172 Hiarn.
vi. 178 Fridlaf.
vi. 178
vi. 179
vi. 191 Staread and

Ingeld.
vi. 204
vi. 207
vi. 214
vii. 222 Halfdan.

vii. 226

vii. 231 Hagbard.

vii. 233
vii. 233

vii. 235
vii. 236
vii. 244 Hildebrand.

vii. 245 Halfdan.

vii. 251 Ole.

viii. 269 Staread.
viii. 273

Of the poem-groups distinguishable here, the Gram, Had-
ding, and Frode (Bk. n) groups may well have come from

INTRODUCTION. CV

one authority, a saga of the type of the Fornaldar Sogur.
The Eric and Erode group another saga might well have
furnished. The Starcad Lay (Bk. vm) may have come as an
isolated poem, as may Biarcamal and Hildebrand's Lay. The
Starcad- Ingild group may possibly not be of Icelandic origin
at all. The Half dan and Ole and Fridlaf groups may be
either from a late saga, or else are the remains of old poems.
The Hagbard-Signy group is a puzzle ; there is nothing in the
Old Northern remains quite of the character of these poems.
Some disciple of the Helge-poet may have appropriated the
line subject of Hagbard's death and left a Hagbard's Lay
which has perished ; or there may have been old Danish
poems on the legend, for it was well known and popular
all over the North and West. The verse of Hiarn is probably
Danish. Saxo did not know or use apparently any of the
elaborate court-poems, and there are a number of Western
poems of which he had probably never heard. He did not
know the majority of our Old Northern poems at all, as
far as we can judge. He has not touched the Wolsung cycle,
though he knew the story from German sources; he does not
use the Helge lays. He has nothing to say of Iwar Wide-
fathom, and the poem of the Mill he neither cites nor
knows.

Has he used poems that he has not turned into Latin verse?
It is difficult to answer this. There are some bits, such as the
Story of Gorms Death, the Ermanaric Tragedies, and the Story
of StarcacVs Youth, that look as if they were drawn originally
from poetry, but whether they came in that shape to Saxo can
hardly be finally decided ; probably they did not. He gives
the Huns March both in prose and verse, and one would sup-
pose he had received it in both shapes. The verse-form in the
Icelandic authority is not given to Eric, but to Gizur, and
is cited in a rather different connection, C. P. B. i. 352.

It will have been noticed that among the few poems in this
list that can be identified with existing remains, about half are
changed in attribution. The dialogue between Niord and
Scathe is given in Saxo to Hadding and his wife (i. 14),

CV1 INTRODUCTION.

Haklan's Club-song really belongs to Wigfus (vii. 1): the
Huns' March (v. 4) has been spoken of already.

Did Saxo then alter his authorities ? It is not likely that
he did. It is far easier to suppose that they were already
changed in attribution in the works he used, which in these
cases were probably later Icelandic sagas, for which the com-
pilers had scraped together as adornment every scrap they
could use, precisely as they stuffed out their scant budget of
genuine tradition with any morsel of folk-tale they could
borrow or steal. That Saxo's attribution is, when it differs
from Icelandic attribution, wrong is pretty clear in such a case
as that of Hadding's verses ; for the authority of the prose
Edda is unquestioned.1

What was the plan upon which Saxo worked ? Obviously
he must have planned out his history when he had got his
material together. What guides had he to go upon, and how
did he proceed ?

We have drawn out side by side below, in tabular form, the
chief extant indigenous Danish king-lists, that are not ob-
viously drawn from Saxo himself, as well as the chief foreign
lists of the same. The most authoritative, perhaps, LangfecJ-
ga-tal, we print in the order of Saxo, but have indicated by
figures prefixed the original order. Now Langfedgatal is very

1 That his verses are genuine, one and all, one is confident. Saxo
would no more invent a verse than a tradition. How loosely he used his
material, what paraphrastic phraseology he delights in, one can see from
such a simple example as that of the Hadding dialogue, which runs thus
in the prose Edda : —

Niord. Lei^ eromc fioll uascat-ec lengi &,
nsetr einar nio
Ulfa bytr J>ottomc illr uesa
hid, songin suana.

Scathe. Sofa ec ne matac sreuar-bedjom &
fogls iarni fyrir,
Sd, mic uecr es af uf$e caemr
morgun huerjan mar,

8 vernacular lines certainly representing 28, and possibly 31, of Saxo's Latin,

INTRODUCTION. CV11

probably drawn from some such poem as Ynglinga-tal and
Halogia-tal, some poem of some thirty stanzas, we may suppose,
bringing the Danish kings down from Odin to some ninth
or tenth century Danish king ; an imitation, most likely, of
Thiodolf 's grand pedigree-poem, since that seems to have been
the model for all the Scandinavian pedigree-poems we possess.
The poet-Earl of the Orkneys and his friend Hall seem to have
known the more celebrated of the Danish kingly groups, and
commemorated them in their Metre-Key.

The Lay of Beowulf, which in its present shape dates
from the end of the ninth century (the MS. is, of course,
later), mentions many of the Danish, Gothic, and Swedish
kings, and is indeed the best authority with Ynglinga and
Scioldunga (and earlier than they) for earlier Scandinavian
history. In this lay, Offa and the Angle group are made
somewhat older than Hrothgar ; Eormenric is much older ;
Hygelac is a contemporary, as is Froda ; Onela is also a con-
temporary ; Eaclgils = Athisl, the rival of Hrothwulf = Rolf
crace, is about the youngest person named. Now Hygelac is a
real person of the fifth century, whose death is fixed by the
Frankish Chronicles ; so that here we have ninth-century
evidence as to what was believed to have taken place in
Scandinavia in the fifth century, and can form some idea of
the early form of some of Saxo's material.

Siven Aggesson, Saxo's contemporary, has a pretty full list
of kings down to 26, agreeing with Saxo closely in the Half-
dan group, in the Roric group with one exception, in the
Frothe group, and again after a great gap, multis omissis,
as to Ragnar and Siward, keeping pretty near also to the
arrangement Saxo adopted for the latter kings.

Abbot William knew only two kings of the older groups
Dan and Warmund, and his list is like the Catalogus, which
curiously adds Snyo, who come in the gap left by Swen,
but may have been known to him. The new feature of the
Catalogus is the introduction of Thruggi = Tryggwe, very
possibly a slip for Dyggwe.

The Latin Lund Chronicle belongs to the same group.

cviii

INTRODUCTION.

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CX11 INTRODUCTION.

One would imagine that Saxo had some authority, probably
Icelandic (drawn of course ultimately from Danish sources),
which did not differ very much from Landfedgatal, and had
already been artificially built upon the same lines as Ynglinga-
tal (c. 900), into a list of some thirty or forty kings, made up
of eight or nine groups. To each of these groups Saxo affixed
or prefixed his new material, whether Danish or Icelandic.
There is no proof that he began with a purely Danish list, as
Dr. Olrik seems rather to consider. The conspectus below,
where the capital letters mark the original group and the
smaller letters the accretions, will show a possible arrange-
ment.

A. Dan-group: a 1, Sciold ; a 2, Gram-Frode.
(B. Frode-Frithlaf group, see e 2.)

C. Halfdan-Helgi-Hrolf group: c 1, Hother; c 2, Balder-
Woden-Wrind.

D. Roric group : d 1, Hamlet; d 2, Wiglec-Offa-Dan.

E. Frode-Ingild group : el, Frode-Haldan ; e 2, Frode-
Frithlaf ; e 3, Sigar ; e 4, Borgar ; e 5, Arngrim's sons.

F. Harold War-tusk group : / 1, Ole ; /2, Eormenric ; fS,
Snio.

G. Godfred group: g 1, Thorkill story.
H. Ragnar- Sigurd group.

I. Modern Eric-Sweyn group.

At a glance, before discussing the groups one by one, it is
possible to see that, first, many of the stories used are purely
mythical ; second, that a good many of them are doublets — the
same story told in various forms. Saxo rejects neither ; he
puts in the mythical Balder, Hother,Thorkill, the doublet Frode-
tales, nay, he even uses a third category — foreign un-Danish
stories, as those of Ole and Eormenric, which had been, we take
it, added as mere fill-gaps to the tale of Danish kings.

A. Knowing that besides Dan, Sciold (the Triptolemos of
the North) was reverenced as a Danish patriarch-king, and
having before him an Icelandic saga that told of early
half-mythic Danish kings, friends and foes of the gods them-

INTRODUCTION. cxiii

selves, Saxo ekes out this group by the simple Galfredian and
Thiodwolfish process of superposition, whereby the traditional
three kings are increased to eight.

B. Whether Saxo had in his list here " Frode f. of Halfdan",
and accordingly linked on at once his Halfdan-Helge group,
it is hard to tell. The Frodes are excessively confusing.
There is another Frode-Halfdan (27-28) later, evidently a
doublet of this link. In Saxo's authorities, a Dan-Fridlaf-
Frode group must have occurred here ; but he prefers to post-
pone this to the Halfdan-Helge-Hrolf group.

C. This depends partly on Danish and partly on Western
Scandinavian material. The account in Saxo of Helge must
be supplemented by that great trilogy (imperfect, alas !) of the
Helge Lays. See 0. P. B. i. cxxx, 131-150, 489.

The group is eked out by the late story of Oclr and the
local traditions of Balder. Why they occupy just this place
it is hard to see, save upon the principle of getting stories
about Woden over as soon as possible.

D. Hrothric [Hrethric-Roric] was thus separated from the
Helge group to which he really belonged, but Saxo knew little
beyond an anecdote of him. It is here, too, the Anglian story
of Wermund and Offa is dragged in, and it is made to follow
the local episode of Orvvendill and Hamlet.

E. The postponed Dan-Frodlaf -Frode is now put in, and be-
fore it comes Huglec-Frode, and after it Fridlaf-Frode-Ingellus,
all doublets, gleaned from different sources, and, according to
the fashion of the day, all equally believed in, and included by
the process of superposition. The famous story of Hagbard,
and other tales from the Sighere cycle, were added here
from Icelandish or Danish sources. That they are of far older
date, and that they are rather of Swedish than Geatish or
Danish origin, seems pretty certain. Borgar, a doublet of
Halfdan, is also added here.

F. Hildetann and Ring are part of an eighth century group
of historical persons centring round the famous battle in which
all Scandinavia joined, c. 775, a veritable battle of the nations,
the results of which had much to do, we can hardly doubt,

Cxiv INTRODUCTION.

with the wonderful outward stir that marked the opening
of the ninth century. To this group Saxo adds the Swedish
Ole group from Icelandic sources ; the Gothic Eormenric group,
drawn from some source other than the old Hamtheow Lays
and Gudrunar-hwot ; and the Snio set, to which Biorn, a mere
name, is the link. It is obviously indigenous with its amusing
folk-tales. The Snio of the shepherd-king story may be the
person round whom these local traditions are grouped, and
that may perhaps account for Saxo's silence about his origin
and early life.

G. The Godfred group is introduced by a nominal Harald
and Gorm, who are mere pegs for the Icelandic Thorkill
story. Godfrey himself ( + 810), the Magnificent Godfrey of
the Ynglingatal, and Anlaf Geirstada-Alf (also immortalised
by Thiodvvulf and Are), are of course real persons with
historic traits hardly dimmed. Anlaf's grave is transferred
by patriotic zeal from Norway to Zealand, where it is found in
an Anlaf's barrow hard by Lethra.

H. The Ragnar group is again historical. Ragnar's sons
revenge their father in 867. With Eric, son of Sigurd-Si ward,
we touch the firm ground of the Life of St. Ansgarius : and
the rest, though not without chronological difficulties and
confusions, is pretty plain sailing out to sea, away from the
reefs and shoals and races and currents of Folk-lore and
Folk-history. The Icelandic tale of Gorm's death, which
we believe to be taken ultimately from a poem, and the
Danish traditions of Thyra outwitting the German and piling
up the great Dane-werk, are almost the last traditional land-
marks.

The whole process is interesting and instructive, and it may
be traced into very small detail by observing the weak links,
the raw edges of juncture, the half -spliced strands that show
along the line. Sometimes Saxo silently places the pieces
he is joining one before the other without any explanation,
but usually a handy son or marriage is made into a means
of bridging piece to piece. And all is completely honest
and full of bona fides. "It must have been like this. Let us

INTRODUCTION.

CXV

therefore put it down so, unless a better arrangement should
be revealed." The process is far more logical and open than
the elaborate invention and garnishing by which the late
fictitious and traditional sagas were compiled by Arnold's
lettered fellow-countrymen and perhaps even by the profes-
sional story-tellers.1

It is a pity we cannot yet subject Geoffrey of Monmouth's
British history to the same kind of analysis, but the means at
our disposal at present are far too scanty for anything like a
complete investigation.

The real chronology of the groups, as far as ascertained,
would run thus : —

Eormenric the Goth . . . fl. c. 350

Hygelac the Geata
Hrothwulf the Dane
Harald War-tusk
Godfred
Raernar's sons

fl. c. 400
fl. c. 450
fl. c. 770
fl. c. 800
fl. c. 870

That the Wermund-Offa group was before Hrothwulf is
clear from Beowulf's Lay, as also that Hraerec comes soon
after Hrothwulf, and that Onela is a fifth century personage.
For Godfrey and the Bagnar's sons we have plenty of con-
temporary testimony.

§ 9. — The Mythology in Saxo.
There is one fact about the Teutonic mythology as we have
it, which has never been brought out quite clearly. The mass
of legend, in more or less complete condition, that has come
down to us, is not the remains of one uniform regular religion
of the type of the Peoples of the Book, Jews, Christians, or
Muslim ; but it is the remains of the separate faiths, more or
less parallel, of course, of many different tribes and confedera-
cies, each of which had its own several name for each several

1 Our frontiers between belief and fancy scarcely existed. Imaginative
additions ran into real reporting. Nothing is harder for us to understand
about mediaeval thought than this. — Tr.

k 2

CXV1 INTRODUCTION.

mythic being, and its own peculiar version of his or her adven-
tures and affinities. When the poets, Hesiod-like, endeavoured
to make a system which should include all the myths that
remained, they naturally found difficulties : different tribes
told different stories of the same person, and also often the
same story of different persons. They did not attempt, nor
was it possible for them, to alter this; each tribe clung faithfully
to its own person, its own stories. The presidency accorded in
the ninth century to Woden over the Anses did not destroy the
special Swedish belief in Frey, or the special Norwegian belief
in Thor, or the special North-German devotion to Tew. There
are accordingly in Saxo's material many mythologic doublets, so
to speak, and Saxo has, luckily, not attempted to harmonize
and simplify his material. He will possibly on occasions
mutilate a story by omissions of what he considers too heathen
or too trivial ; but though this be a failing in him, he never
commits the greater, the unforgiven fault of adding to or
doctoring the stories before him. Hence one can form a pretty
fair idea of the kind of matter he has worked up.

No one has commented upon Saxo's mythology with such
brilliancy, such minute consideration, and such success as the
Swedish scholar, Victor Rydberg. More than occasionally he
is over-ingenious and over-anxious to reduce chaos to order ;
sometimes he almost loses his faithful reader in the maze he
treads so easily and confidently, and sometimes he stumbles
badly. But he has placed the whole subject on afresh footing,
and much that is to follow will be drawn from his Teutonic
Mythology (cited here from the English version by Rasmus B.
Anderson, London, 1889, as T. M.).

Let us take first some of the incontestable results of his
investigations that affect Saxo.

Sciold is the father of Gram in Saxo, and the son of Sceaf
in other older authorities. Dr. Rydberg (97-101) forms the
following equations for the Sciolding patriarchs : —

a. Scef — Heimdal — Rig.

b. Sciold — Borgar — Jarl.

c. Gram — Half dan — Konuim-.

INTRODUCTION. CXVli

It further appears by juxtaposition of the stories that
Halfdan Beroranime = Halfdan Borgarson,

and also = Halfdan the Old, the patriarch of the Hyndluliod
and of the authorities (Prose Edda and Fornaldar Sdgur)
drawn therefrom. Hence further equations result : —

Signe — Almweig [Alfny] = Gram's wife.

Sumbl — Eymund [Eywind] = Gram's f.-in-law.

Hadding = Gram's s. by Signe.

Groa — Sigrutha — Guritha = Gram's w. by capture.
Henricus [Ericus] — Ebbo — Si war = Gram's rival.

Guthorm = Gram's s. by Groa,

Swipdag — Ericus = Gram's foe and step-sou.

Orwandel = Groa's husband.

Thor = Gram's foster father.1

Chief among the mythic tales that concern Saxo are the
various portions of the Sivipdag-myth, which Dr. Rydberg has
been able to complete with much success. They may be
resumed briefly as follows : —

Swipdag, helped by the incantations of his dead mother,
whom he had raised from the dead to teach him spells of pro-
tection, sets forth on his quests. He is the Odusseus of the
Teutonic mythology. He desires to avenge his father on
Halfdan that slew him. To this end he must have a weapon
of might against Half dan's club. The Moon-god tells him of

1 Dr. Rydberg further (T. M. 107) attempts to equate the three Halfdans
and Gram with the Mannus of Tacitus ; and Mannus' three sons, Ingaeuo,
Hermio, Istseuo, with Halfdan's three sons, Yngwe, Guthorm, Hadding.
But his arguments are not convincing (especially on the etymologic side),
though highly ingenious.

Later on (T. M. 121-5) he even tries to identify the three Halfdans and
their doublet Gram with Helge Hundingsbane, whose son (by his own sister
Yrsa) was Hrolfr crace. This is an extremely unlikely hypothesis.
Helge's parentage and kin were well known in the ninth century, witness
Beowulf's Lay and Helge's Lays. We need not doubt that he was a real
man of the fifth century. That part of a story relating to an older hero
has descended on him, is of course neither impossible nor improbable.

CXviii INTRODUCTION.

the blade Thiasse has forged. It has been stolen by Mimer,
who has crone out into the cold wilderness on the rim of the
world. Swipdag achieves the sword, and defeats and slays
Halfdan. He now buys a wife, Menglad, of her kinsmen the
gods by the gift of the sword, which thus passes into Frey's
hands.

How he established a claim upon Frey, and who Menglad
was, is explained in Saxo's story of Eric, where the characters
may be identified thus : —

Swipdag — Eric Wuldor — Roller.

Freya — Gunwara Thor — Brae.

Frey — Frode III Giants — The Greps.
Niord— Fridlaf „ Coller.

Frey and Freya had been carried off by the giants, and
Swipdag and his faithful friend resolve to get them back for
the Anses, who bewail their absence. They journey to
Monster-land, win back the lady, who ultimately is to become
the hero's wife, and return her to her kindred ; but her brother
can only be rescued by his father Niord. It is by wit rather
than by force that Swipdag is successful here.1

The third journey of Swipdag is undertaken on Frey's
behalf ; he goes under the name of Scirner to woo giant-
Gymer's daughter Gerth for his brother-in-law, buying her
with the sword that he himself had paid to Frey as his sister's
bride-price. So the sword gets back to the giants again.2

1 Saxo had this story in a later and euhemerized form. It is probably
the story of How the Sun and Moon were lost and iron back. It answers
the questions relating to eclipses and the moon's disappearances, and is only
a little less archaic than the older story, in which wolves, i.e., monsters,
are always trying to swallow the sun and moon, and the still more antique
tale of the World- eyes, one of which was stolen or pledged for some reason.
All of these stories have survived in Teutonic mythology side by side.
See above for other stories relating to Freya.

8 This story Saxo has not recorded. It comes to us in Scirnis-mal, and
it is to Dr. Rydberg that we owe the identification of Scirner and Swipdag.
This is almost necessary in order to explain the Sword story, which is part
of the answer to the questions, When were swords invented ? Who made
the first sword '. Where is it now ?

INTRODUCTION*. CX1X

Swipdag's dead foe Half dan left two young " avengers",
Hadding and Guthorm, whom he seeks to slay. But Thor-
Brache gives them in charge of two giant brothers. Wain-
head took care of Hadding, Hafle of Guthorm. Swipdag made
peace with Guthorm, in a way not fully explained to us,
but Hadding took up the blood-feud as soon as he was old
enough.

Hadding was befriended by a woman, who took him to the
Underworld — the story is only half told in Saxo, unluckily
— and by Woden, who took him over-sea wrapt in his mantle as
they rode Sleipner over the waves ; but here again Saxo either
had not the whole story before him, or he wished to abridge
it for some reason or prejudice, and the only result of this
astonishing pilgrimage is that Woden gives the young hero
some useful counsels. He falls into captivity, entrapped by
Loke (for what reason again we are left to guess), and is
exposed to wild beasts, but he slays the wolf that attacks him,
and eating its heart as Woden had bidden him, he gains
wisdom and foresight.

Prepared by these adventures, he gets Guthorm to join him
(how or why the peace between him and Swipdag was broken
we know not), and they attack their father's slayer, but are
defeated, though Woden sunk Asmund Swipdag's son's ship,
Gno, at Hlessey, and Wainhead and Hardgrip his daughter
fought for Hadding.1

Hadding2 wanders oft* to the East with his foster-sister and
mistress and Hardgrip, who is slain protecting him against
an angry ghost raised from the Underworld by her spells.

1 Dr. Rydberg identifies Yngwe-Ing with Swipdag (T. M. 180), but this
is needless. Yngwe-Frey is an old title, and it is sufficient to suppose
that Frey is helping Swipdag and Asmund. The giant's falchion or curved
sax is defeated here possibly by Frey's sword not yet sent to Giantland.

2 To imagine that Bra valla-fight is simply an echo of the fight between
Hadding and Swipdag is absurd, though, of course, Bravalla attracted to
it older traditions. These stories always crystallize round a prominent
point. The proposed equation of Theodric of Verona with Hadding,
T. M. 194, is even more preposterous : but Hartung-Hadding, T. M. 196,
is quite correct.

CXX INTRODUCTION.

However, helped by Heimdal1 and Woden (who at this time
was in exile), Hadding's ultimate success is assured.

When Woden came back to power, Swipdag, whose
violence and pride grew horribly upon him, was exiled,2
possibly by some device of his foes, and took upon him,

1 Dr. Rydberg identifies Lyser as Heimdal, T. M. 185, but not safely,
and Mid-Othin as Loke, T. M. 189, mo3t convincingly.

2 It is in this connection that Dr. Rydberg, T. M. 500-3, identifies
Swipdag with Heremod, Woden's lad, Heremod the keen, who in the
mail coat and helm Woden gave him went journeys for the gods. It was
he that set out to Hell to fetch back Balder, as the prose Edda tells. It
was he, too, that Woden calls on in Haconar-mal to welcome the dead hero
to Walhall, just as in the older Ericsmal Sigmund and Sinfiotle are called
on. It is he that in the Lay of Beowulf is mentioned as having lived : —

to w?elfylle,
and to deatf-cwalum Deniga-leodum :

breat bolgen mod biod-geneatas

eaxl-gesteallan 6j>J>pet he ana hwearf

mrere beoden mon-dre'amum from.

or, as it might be rendered : —

for glut of slaughter
and a death- plague to the Danish folk :

He crushed in his fury his comrades at table
his shoulder-men, till alone he departed,

the famous prince, from the joys of men. 1712-6.

Dr. Rydberg further read the lines 899-901 of Beowulf's Lay as referring
to Heremod, not to Sigemund, as it has usually been construed (in strict
accord with the antecedent "Wyrm", but with difficult juxtaposition to
line 902), and sees in them the tragedy of Heremod's death : —

srebat gehlod

bier on bearm scipes beorhte fnetwa

Wielses eafera : Wyrm hat gemealt :

S^ was wreccena wide mterost

ofer wer-J'eode wigendra hle'o

ellen-d.'edum he hes ;er onhih

si'SSan Heremodes Hild sweSrode
earfod and ellen.

P>ut the whole passage is obviously obscure, and after 915 there is a
lacuna. If Dr. Rydberg's theory be accepted, the resemblances between
Heremod and Swipdag are of course much increased.

INTRODUCTION'. CXX1

whether by will or doom, a sea-monster's shape. His faithful
wife follows him over land and sea, but is not able to save
him. He was met by Hadding and, after a fierce fight, slain.
Swipdag's wife cursed the conqueror, and he was obliged to
institute an annual sacrifice to Frey (her brother) at Upsale,
who annuls the curse. Loke, in seal's guise, tried to steal the
necklace of Freya at the Reef of Treasures, where Swipdag
was slain, but Haimdal, also in seal-skin, fought him, and
recovered it for the gods.1

Other myths having reference to the goddesses appear in
Saxo. There is the story of Heimdall and Sol, which
Dr. Rydberg has recognised in the tale of Alf and Alfhild,
T. M. 144. The same tale of how the god won the sun for his
wife appears in the mediaeval German King Ruther (in which
title Dr. Rydberg sees Hriitr, a name of the ram-headed
god).

The story of Othar [Od] and Syritha [Sigrid] is obviously
that of Freya and her lover. She has been stolen by the
giants, owing to the wiles of her waiting-maid, Loke's helper,
the evil witch Angrbode. Od seeks her, finds her, skiys the
evil giant who keeps her in the cave ; but she is still bewitched,
her hair knotted into a hard, horny mass, her eyes void of
brightness. Unable to gain recognition he lets her go, and
she is made by a giantess to herd her flocks. Again found by
Od, and again refusing to recognise him, she is let go again
But this time she flies2 to the world of men, and takes service
with Od's mother and father. Here, after a trial of her love,
she and Od are reconciled. Sywald [Sigwald], her father,
weds Od's sister.3 Of course this tale is a doublet of the

1 This last part of the story, fragments of which appear in the prose
Edda. belongs to the myth of the Brisinga-men, the magic necklace which
brought strife and woe to all its owners. Here it must have caused Swip-
dag's death in some way, but how we are not told.

2 As a bird in her feather plumage (which we know from the Lay of the
Homing of Thor's Hammer), more pristino she escapes down the steep
cliffs of Giantland over the river.

3 K. Maurer's Icelandic tale of Mserdoll, as Dr. Rydberg points out, is
a late version of this story.

CXXU INTRODUCTION.

Swipdag Rescue story, though we are not therefor obliged to
equate Swipdag and Od.

The war between the Anses and Wanes, which Woluspa and
others of the Eddie poems mention, has left some traces in
Saxo, though we need not follow Dr. Rydberg in identifying
the story of Fridlaf and the Robbers as the attack of Niord,
T. M. 167-171, on Ansegard, and the conquest by the Wanes
of that desirable stronghold, Niord's axe def eating Thor's
hammer.

The story of Balder s death was greatly euhemerised in
Saxo's sources. Hother [Ho3r], the blind, was mixed up with
Odr, the lover of Freya, and Nanna Balder's wife was made
almost a reflection of Freya. But the essentials of the story
are there. Gewar, Nanna's father, is supposed by Dr. Rydberg
to be the moon-god, and equated with Mane, Mundilfore, Nef,
Nokkwe, T. M. 455-70. Fialler, the exile who goes to the
land of Nodeath, is equated by him with Fair-Balder, T. M.
464-7.

The tale of the vengeance for Balder is more clearly given
by the Dane, and with a comic force that recalls the Aristo-
phanic fun of Loka-senna. It appears that the story had a
sequel which only Saxo gives. Woden had the giantess
Angrbode, who stole Freya, punished. Frey, whose mother-
in-law she was. took up her quarrel, and accusing Woden of
sorcery and dressing up like a woman to betray Wrind, got
him banished. While in exile Wuldor takes Woden's place
and name, and Woden lives on earth, part of the time at least,
with Scathe Thiasse's daughter, who had parted from Niord,
T. M. 161.

The giants now resolved to attack Ansegard ; and Woden,
under the name of Yggr, warned the gods, who recall him
after ten years' exile.1

But for Saxo this part of the story of the wars of the gods
would be very fragmentary.

1 This is one of the most ingenious of Dr. llydberg's suggestions, though
one cannot admit that the Huns' attack, so long famous and so plainly
historical, was a mere echo of the Celestial War. The exact converse is
probably true.

INTRODUCTION. CXX111

The Hildiger story, where a father slays his son unwittingly,
and then falls at his brother's hand, a tale combining the
Rustam and the Balin-Balan types, is one of the Hilding
tragedies, and curiously preserved in the late saga of Asmund
the Champions' bane. It is an antithesis, as Dr. Rydberg
remarks, to the Hildebrand and Hadubrand story, where
father and son must tight and are reconciled.

The story of Orwandel (the analogue of Orion the Hunter)
must be gathered chiefly from the prose Edda. He was a
huntsman, big enough and brave enough to cope with giants.
He was the friend of Thor, the husband of Groa, the father of
Swipdag, the enemy of giant Coller and the monster Sela. The
story of his birth, and of his being blinded, are lost apparently
in the Teutonic stories, unless we may suppose that the bleed-
ing of Robin Hood till he could not see by the traitorous
prioress is the last remains of the story of the great archer's
death.1 Dr. Rydberg regards him and his kinsfolk as doublets

The identification of Swipdag with Hamlet, T. M. 572, is not at all
convincing. That Orwandil was slain by treachery and fully avenged one
cannot doubt, but it does not follow that the hard-worked Swipdag was
the only available person. The proposed equation of Swipdag with
Fridigern is based on a misreading, if we may trust Dr. Holder's excellent
text, cf. 4 ' arpantalae" for " respamarae". Nor is there any other justifi-
cation urged for the suggestion.

Dr. Rydberg's pedigree requires correction in one point. The text
of Grotta-Songr, though not perfect, is pretty clear as to the kin of
Hrungner, 37-41 : —

Hrungner

I
H...

I
Olwalde

_ _j_

f II

Thiaze Aurner Ide

I I I

Scathe Fenia Menia

We must suppose that the original name of Hrungner's son, Olwalde's
father, was an h-word in the line : —

HarSr was Hrungner H. . . faSir ;
for the present reading, uoc hans", is senseless. This emendation I owe
to Dr. Yigfusson. The parentage of Fenia and Menia is doubtful.

CX XIV

INTRODUCTION.

of those three men of feats, Egil the archer, Weyland smith,
and Finn the harper, and these again doublets of the three
primaeval artists, the sons of Iwalde, whose story is told in the
prose Edda. We give Dr. Rydberg's genealogy, those figures
mentioned by Saxo being printed in capitals,

The Elves Hniflungs. J Iwalde-Olwalde = Greip- \ — Giant

\ Geirwandel-Sumbl, Gambara J
etc.

Spear wielder.

fGanger-Urnir-

Ebbe-Idot-
"j Egil-Toke-

Orwandel-Ane,
1 etc.

i Boar and bear
< A rrow wielder

Tkiasse-Rognir-
Gustr-Brunne-
Weyland-
Anund; etc.

Wolf
Smith

Ide-HODBRODD- t Idun
Irung-Giuke- t Bil

| Slag-Finn- Widfinn-

vThankred-GELDER-Aldrian,

| Horse

I ax-wielder and harper

Fenia
and
Menia
etc.

( Wullder-
l Roller, etc.

archer

SWIPDAG-

Eric- Hamlet, etc.
sioordsman

Widga . Scathe = Niord-
Fridlaf
= [Woden]

GlUKUNGS

Great part of the troubles which befell the gods arose from
the antagonism of the sons of Iwalde and the brethren Sindre
and Brokk [Cinder and Brank], rival artist families ; and it
was owing to the retirement of their artist foster-parents that
Frey and Freya were left among the giants. The Hniflung
hoard is also supposed to have consisted of the treasures of
one band of primaeval artists, the Iwaldings.

Whether we have here the phenomenon of mythological
doublets belonging to different tribes, or whether we have
already among these early names that descent of story which
has led to an adventure of Moses being attributed to Garibaldi,
given to Theodoric the king the adventures of Theodoric the
god, taken Arthur to Rome; and Charles the Great to Con-
stantinople, it is hard to say.

The skeleton-key of identification, used even as ably as Dr.
Rydberg uses it, will not pick every mythologic lock, though it
undoubtedly has opened many hitherto closed. The truth is

INTRODUCTION. CXXV

that man is a finite animal ; that he has a limited number of
types of legend ; that these legends, as long as they live and
exist, are excessively prehensile ; that, like the opossum, they
can swing from tree to tree without fallino* ; as one tree dies
out of memory they pass on to another. When they are scared
away by what is called exact intelligence from the tall forest
of great personalities, they contrive to live humbly clinging to
such bare plain stocks and poles (Tis and Jack and Cinderella)
as enable them to find a precarious perch.

To drop similitudes, we must be prepared, in unravelling our
tangled mythology, to go through several processes. We must,
of course, note the parallelisms and get back to the earliest
attribution-names we can find. But all system is of late
creation, it does not begin till a certain political stage, a stage
where the myths of coalescing clans come into contact, and
an official settlement is attempted by some school of poets or
priests. Moreover, systematization is never so complete that it
effaces all the earlier state of things. Behind the official systems
of Homer and Hesiod lies the actual chaos of local faiths pre-
served for us by Pausanias and other mythographers. The
common factors in the various local faiths are much the majority
among the factors they each possess ; and many of these
common factors are exceedingly primitive, and resolve them-
selves into answers to the questions that children still ask,
still receiving no answer but myth — that is, poetic and
subjective hypothesis, containing as much truth as they can
receive or their inventors can grasp.

Who were our forbears ? How did day and night, sun and
moon, earth and water, and fire come ? How did the animals
come ? Why has the bear no tail ? Why are fishes dumb,
the swallow cleft-tailed ? How did evil come ? Why did
men begin to quarrel ? How did death arise ? What will
the end be ? Why do dead persons come back ? What do
the dead do ? What is the earth shaped like ? Who
invented tools and weapons, and musical instruments, and
how ? When did kings and chiefs first come ?

From accepted answers to such questions most of the huge

CXXV INTRODUCTION'.

mass of mythology arises. Man makes his gods in his own
image, and the doctrines of omen, coincidence, and corre-
spondence, helped by incessant and imperfect observation and
logic, bring about a system of religious observance, of magic
and ritual, and all the masses of folly and cruelty, hope and
faith, and even charity, that group about their inventions, and
seem to be the necessary steps in the onward path of pro-
gressive races.

When to these we add the true and exaggerated memories
of actual heroes, the material before the student is pretty
completely comprised. Though he must be prepared to meet
the difficulties caused in the contact of races, of civilisations,
by the conversion of persons holding one set of mythical ideas
to belief in another set of different, more attractive, and often
more advanced stage.

The task of arriving at the scientific, speculative ethic, and the
actual practice of our remote ancestry (for to that end is the
student of mythology and folk-lore aiming) is not therefore
easy. Nor is the record perfect, though it is not so poor in most
cases as was once believed. The Brothers Grimm, patriarchs
alike as mythologists and folk-lorists, the Castor and Pollox
of our studies, have proved this as regards the Teutonic
nations, just as they showed us, by many a striking example,
that in great part folk-lore was the mythology of to-day, and
mythology the folk-lore of yesterday.

In many cases we are helped by quite modern material to
make out some puzzle that an old tale presents, and there is
little doubt but that the present activity in the field of folk-
lore will not only result in fresh matter but in fresh methods
freshly applied.

The Scandinavian material, at all events, is particularly rich:
there is the extensive Icelandic written literature touching the
ninth and tenth and eleventh centuries; the noble, if frag-
mentary remains of Old Northern poetry of the Wickingtide ;
and lastly, the mass of tradition which, surviving in oral
form, and changing in colour from generation to generation,
was first recorded in part in the seventeenth, and again in

e
e
om

INTRODUCTION. cxxvii

part in the present century ; and all these yield a plentiful
iield for research. But their evidence gains immensely by
the existence of Saxo's nine books of traditional and mythic
lore, collected and written down in an age when much that
was antique and heathen was passing away for ever Th
gratitude due to the Welshman of the twelfth century, whos
garnered hoard has enriched so many poets and romancers from
his day to now, is no less due to the twelfth-century Dane
whose faithful and eloquent enthusiasm has swept much dust
from antique time, and saved us such a story as Shakespeare has
not disdained to consecrate to highest use. Not only Celtic and
Teutonic lore are the richer for these two men, but the whole
Western world of thought and speech. In the history of
modern literature, it is but right that by the side of Geoffrey
an honourable place should be maintained for Saxo, and
"awake remembrance of these mighty dead."

§ 10.— Names in the present Volume.
In this version some pains have been found necessary in
rendering Saxo's proper names. To keep the Latin words
which themselves often vary, would look pedantic. Rio-idly
to give Icelandic or Danish forms would be neither possible
nor satisfactory. The forms adopted in the translation either
are, or resemble those now acclimatised in English. But no
uniform principle is feasible, because Saxo has none.* K and w
have been nearly always used for c and v; of the exceptions
some are for euphony, one or two inadvertent. There are a few
other inconsistencies ; but they can be detected in all cases by
consulting the Index of Names, which gives Saxo's as well as
the translated form of the word. For places the modern names
have usually been given, and for a special reason some latitude
has been taken in the catalogues at the beginning of Bk vm
The forms used in §§ 7-9 present no difficulty.

1 For his normal practices in this matter see Dr. Rydber* T M. 457 ■
and Axel Olrik, Aarb for JSTord. Oldk. og Hist, 1892, pp. 78^94. '

AFTERMATH OF NOTES.

ii. 44. The prose preceding the Sword Song by Swanhwit seems

to be paraphrased from a poem.
,, 56. Agner dies laughing here as Ragnar dies in the famous Kraku-

mal, composed in Saxo's lifetime. C. P. B. ii. 340-5.
iii. 70, 1. 22. There seems a lacuna after procreatum of some half-page

or so. Cf. iii. 73, 76.
vi. 178. The Song, vi. iii, may have originally been part of the comic Lay

on which the Eddie tale of Thor and Rungner rests.
,, 181, 1. 39, for quam perhaps cuius fratrem might be read. Cf. vi. 178.
,, 195. Great speed of foot was Starcad's gift, as it was that of

Achilleus and Cuchulain.
,, 196. Endurance of cold was one of a champion s qualities.
,, 197. A champion refuses to drink water defiled by blood.
,, 199, 1. 35. The charcoal incident is not explained ; the text seems

imperfect here,
vii. 216. Sister's son succeeding his mother's brother.
,, 225. For Siwald read Yngwin.
,, 235. This mocking of the condemned prisoner and his last draught

seem old Teutonic traits.
,, 237. It was the breach of hospitality that made Hagen's murder of

the child so bad in the Nibelungen Lied.
,, 238. Three pickets outlying round a king's dwelling, like the watch-
man of the old Irish tales.
,, 271. Cf. Starcad's feeling about the chariot with Lancelot's as the

chevalier a la charette.
viii. 244. Perhaps uterine-brother rather than foster-brother is meant,
ix. 303. There seems a lacuna after wounded.
,, 304, etc. The reason of Snake-i'-the-Eye being given as an ekename

to Sigurd looks like part of an old folk-tale.
,, 305. There seems a lacuna after unscrupulous men.
,, 308. The Scythians' stratagem of wheeled engines is not explained in

the text. It recalls the elaborate engines devised in the

Tractate de Rebus Bellicis, and figured in such books as the

illustrated Notitia of Frobenius.
,, ,, The dysentery that slew the invading Northmen is historic.
,, 312. The open penance or humiliation here is archaic, such as the

saddle-carrying of the Angevins and the subjugal ceremony

described in Yatzdsela Saga and Scaldscapa-mal. C. P. B. i.

423-4.
,, 313. This church of Harold's is historic.
,, 314. Fortitude on hearing bad news was incumbent on the Northern

gentleman.

F. Y. P.

SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

PREFACE.

Forasmuch as all other nations are wont to vaunt the glory [P. i,
of their achievements, and reap joy from the remembrance Hofdder]
of their forefathers : Absalon, Chief Pontiff'2 of the Danes,
whose zeal ever burned high for the glorification of our
land, and who would not suffer it to be defrauded of like
renown and record, cast upon me, the least of his followers —
since all the rest refused the task — the work of compiling
into a chronicle the history of Denmark, and by the authority
of his constant admonition spurred my weak faculty to
enter on a labour too heavy for its strength. For who could
write a record of the deeds of Denmark ? It had but lately3
been admitted to the common faith : it still languished as
strange to Latin as to religion. But now that the holy ritual
brought also the command of the Latin tongue, men were as
slothful now as they were unskilled before, and their slug-

1 The Editio Princeps has the following heading from an unknown
hand : " Prologue to the Danish History of the most learned and eloquent
Saxo Grammaticus of Zealand, sometime Head of the Illustrious Cathedral
Church of Roskild : the Preface to the Chronicles of the Danes."

2 Absalon, Chief Pontiff . . .] i.e., Archbishop of Lund. He was
appointed in 1179, but was allowed to retain the bishopric of Roskild by-
special leave of the Pope. See Bk. xiv. That and the succeeding books
are tilled with the exploits of this righting bishop in the Vandalic war and
elsewhere. He died in 1201.

3 Lately] i.e., as compared to other countries.

2 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

gishness proved as faultful as that former neediness. Thus it
came about that my lowliness, though perceiving itself too
feeble for the aforesaid burden, yet chose rather to strain
beyond its strength than to resist his bidding ; fearing that
while our neighbours rejoiced in transmitted records of their
deeds, the repute of our own people might appear not to
possess any written chronicle, but rather to be sunk in
oblivion of antiquity. Thus I, forced to put my shoulder,
which was unused to the task, to a burden unfamiliar to all
authors of preceding time, and dreading to slight his com-
mand, have obeyed more boldly than effectually, borrowing
from the greatness of my admonisher that good heart which
the weakness of my own wit denied me.

And since, ere my enterprise reached its goal, his death out-
ran it ; I entreat thee chiefly, Andrew,1 who wast chosen by a
most wholesome and accordant vote to be successor in the
same office and to headship of spiritual things, to direct and
inspire my theme; that I may baulk by the defence of so
[2] great an advocate that spiteful detraction which ever reviles
what is most conspicuous. For thy breast, very fruitful in
knowledge, and dowered with great store of worshipful
doctrines, is to be deemed a kind of shrine of heavenly
treasures. Thou, who hast searched through Gaul and Italy
and Britain also in order to gather knowledge of letters and
amass them abundantly, didst after thy long wandering obtain

1 Andrew] A Zealander (whence the expression below about " borrow-
ing a Pontiff") ; was a theologian, poet, jurist, warrior, and diplomatist,
and performed many exploits besides those mentioned by Saxo. He
succeeded Absalon in 1201, and went on a mission to Rome for Canute.
He helped to govern Livonia, remaining there till 1222 ; having three
years before accompanied an expedition to Esthonia, and helped the
Danes (according to Script, rev. Dan.) to win a great battle by holding up
his hands, like Moses, on a mount, his bishops supporting him when he
was weary. For the last six years of his life he was a leper, and died
in 1228. (See note in vol. ii of Muller, who has also written a prolusion
on Andrew's life.) A chronicler describes him as humiUs et quietus et
pUdicilS >■! "I>st incus.

PREFACE. 3

a most illustrious post in a foreign school,1 and proved such
a pillar thereof, that thou seemedst to confer more grace on
thy degree than it did on thee. Then being made, on account of
the height of thy honours and the desert of thy virtues, Secre-
tary2 to the King, thou didst adorn that employment, in itself
bounded and insignificant, with such works of wisdom as to
leave it a piece of promotion for men of greatest rank to covet
afterwards, when thou wert transferred to that office which
now thou holdest. Wherefore Skaane has been found to leap
for joy that she has borrowed a Pontiff from her neighbours
rather than chosen one from her own people ; inasmuch as she
both elected nobly and deserved joy of her election. Being a
shining light, therefore, in lineage, in letters, and in parts, and
guiding the people with the most fruitful labours of thy
teaching, thou hast won the deepest love of thy flock, and by
thy boldness in thy famous administration hast conducted the
service thou hast undertaken unto the summit of renown.
And lest thou shoulclst seem to acquire ownership on the
strength of prescription,3 thou hast, by a pious and bountiful
will, made over a very rich inheritance to Holy Church ;
choosing rather honourably to reject riches (which are covered
with the rust of cares) than to be shackled with the greed of
them and with their burden. Likewise thou hast set about an

1 Post in a foreign school] externae scholae regim,eu ; probably at the
University of Paris, a common resort of learned Danes. St. thinks that
Andrew had received the Rectorate of the University, as a distinguished
stranger ; M., much more plausibly, supposes him to have been a doctor
of theology, which he is known to have professed in Denmark. The word
magisterium below seems to point to a degree of Master, and consequently
to the office of teaching.

2 Secretary] epistolaris ; probably Chancellor ; the Latin word (taken
from Mart. Capella) is perhaps chosen in preference to cancellarius as
more classical. Saxo seems to imply that the office was at first that of a
mere secretary, but that Andrew raised it to political importance.

3 Acquire ownership on the strength of prescription] do7ninium p<>*-
sessione usurpare. M. doubtfully renders usurpare by improbe uti, " mis-
use". Andrew showed by his benevolent gift of his wealth to the Church
that he did not regard it as his own, but only as held in trust.

4 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

amazing work1 upon the reverend tenets of the faith; and, in
thy zeal to set the service of public religion before thy private
concerns, hast, by the lesson of thy wholesome admonitions,
driven those men who refused payment of the dues2 belonging
to religion to do to holy things the homage that they ought ;
and by thy pious gift of treasure hast atoned for the ancient
neglect of sacred buildings. Further, those who pursued a
wanton life, and yielded to the stress of incontinence above
measure, thou hast redeemed from nerveless sloth to a more
upright state of mind, partly by continuing instant in whole-
some reproof, and partly by thy noble example of simple
living ; leaving it in doubt whether thou hast edified them
more by word or deed. Thus thou, by mere counsels of wis-
dom, hast achieved what it was not granted to any of thy
forerunners to obtain.

And I would not3 have it forgotten that the more ancient
of the Danes, when any notable deeds of mettle had been done,
[3] were filled with emulation of glory, and imitated the Roman
style ; not only by relating in a choice kind of composition,
which might be called a poetical work, the roll of their lordly
deeds ; but also by having graven upon rocks and cliffs, in the
characters of their own language, the works of their fore-
fathers, which were commonly known in poems in the mother-
tongue. In the footsteps of these poems, being as it were
classic books of antiquity, I have trod ; and keeping true step
with them as I translated, in the endeavour to preserve their
drift, I have taken care to render verses by verses ; so that
the chronicle of what I shall have to write, being founded
upon these, may thus be known, not for a modern fabrica-
tion, but for the utterance of antiquity ; since this present
work promises not a trumpery dazzle of language, but faithful
information concerning times past.

Moreover, how many histories must we suppose that men

1 An amazing work] This was the Hexameron, a work of 8,000 lines,
described as a subtle and scholastic lucubration on points of doctrine.

2 Dues] perti/nentium r&rwn . . . i.e., tithes.

3 And J would not] See Introduction upon Saxo's sources.

PREFACE. 5

of such genius would have written, could they have had skill
in Latin and so slaked their thirst for writing ! Men who
though they lacked acquaintance with the speech of Rome,
were yet seized with such a passion for bequeathing some
record of their history, that they encompassed huge boulders
instead of scrolls, borrowing rocks for the usage of books.

Nor may the pains of the men of Thule be blotted in
oblivion ; for though they lack all that can foster luxury (so
naturally barren is the soil), yet they make up for their needi-
ness by their wit, by keeping continually every observance of
soberness, and devoting every instant of their lives to per-
fecting our knowledge of the deeds of foreigners. Indeed,
they account it a delight to learn and to consign to remem-
brance the history of all nations, deeming it as great a glory
to set forth the excellences of others as to display their own.
Their stores, which are stocked with attestations of historical
events, I have examined somewhat closely, and have woven to-
gether no small portion of the present work by following their
narrative, not despising the judgment of men whom I know
to be so well versed in the knowledge of antiquity. And I
have taken equal care to follow the statements of Absalon, and
with obedient mind and pen to include both his own doings
and other men's doings of which he learnt ; treasuring the
witness of his august narrative as though it were some teach-
ing from the skies.

Wherefore, Waldemar,1 healthful Prince and Father of us all,
shining light of thy land, whose lineage, most glorious from
times of old, I am to relate, I beseech thee let thy grace attend
the faltering course of this work ; for I am fettered under the
weight of my purpose, and dread that I may rather expose
my unskilfulness and the feebleness of my parts, than portray
thy descent as I duly should. For, not to speak of thy rich
inheritance from thy fathers, thou hast notably increased thy
realm by conquering thy neighbours, and in the toil of spread- [4]
ing thy sovereignty hast encompassed the ebbing and flowing

1 Waldemar] the Second (1203-42). Saxo does not reach his history.

6 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

waves of Elbe, thus adding to thy crowded roll of honours no
mean portion of fame. And after outstripping the renown
and repute of thy forerunners by the greatness of thy deeds,
thou didst not forbear to make armed assault even upon part of
the Roman empire. And though thou art deemed to be well
endowed with courage and generosity, thou hast left it in
doubt whether thou dost more terrify to thy foes in warfare or
melt thy people by thy mildness. Also thy most illustrious
grandsire, who was sanctified with the honours of public
worship, and earned the glory of immortality by an unmerited
death, now dazzles by the refulgence of his holiness those
whom living he annexed in his conquests. And from his
most holy wounds more virtue than blood hath flowed.

Moreover I, bound by an old and inherited duty of obedi-
ence, have set my heart on fighting for thee, if it be only with
all the forces of my mind ; my father and grandfather being-
known to have served thy illustrious sire in camp with
loyal endurance of the toils of war. Relying therefore on thy
guidance and regard, I have resolved to begin with the posi-
tion and configuration of our own country; for I shall relate
all things as they come more vividly, if the course of this
history first traverse the places to which the events belong, and
take their situation as the starting-point for its narrative.

The extremes, then, of this country are partly bounded by
a frontier of another land, and partly enclosed by the waters
of the adjacent sea. The interior is washed and encompassed
by the Ocean ; and this, through the circuitous winds of the
interstices, now straitens into the narrows of a firth, now
advances into ampler bays, forming a number of islands.
Hence Denmark is cut in pieces by the intervening waves of
ocean, and has but few portions of firm and continuous terri-
tory ; these being divided by the mass of waters that break
them up, in ways varying with the different angle of the bend
of the sea.1 Of all these, Jutland, being the largest and first

Angle of the sea] pro varia freti reflexioris obliquitate. Reflexioris
apparently implies the acute re-entrant angle made by the sound when
turning a sharp corner.

PREFACE. 7

settled,1 holds the chief place in the Danish kingdom. It
both lies foremost and stretches furthest, reaching to the
frontiers of Teutonland, from contact with which it is severed
by the bed of the river Eyder. Northwards it swells some-
what in breadth, and runs out to the shore of the Nori'c
Channel [Skagerrak]. In this part is to be found the fjord
called Liim, which is so full of fish that it seems to yield the
natives as much food as the whole soil.

Close by this fjord also lies Lesser [North] Friesland,2 which
curves in from the promontory of Jutland in a cove of
sinking plains and shelving lap, and by the favour of the
flooding ocean yields immense crops of grain. But whether

1 First settled] inchoameuti ratione. Sch. takes the word thus, as refer-
ring to time, but the next sentence looks like a reference to position ;
Jutland is both prior and porrectior.

- Lesser (North) Friesland] Fresia minor. This lay north of the Eyder,
along the coast of Schleswig. Saxo's account in Bk. xiv (p. 464, ed. Holder)
is worth translating: " Meanwhile Canute [the Fifth] went, with a few
to share his exile, to Lesser Friesland, which also belongs to the territories
of Denmark. It is a province rich in land and wealthy in flocks. More-
over it lies low on the borders of the ocean, so that it is sometimes washed
away by its tides. To prevent them breaking in, the whole coast is fringed
with a dyke ; but if they happen to burst through this, they flood the
fields, and drown the settlements (vicos) and crops. For no spot there is
naturally more elevated than any other. They [the waters] frequently
tear up the fields from the bottom and carry them elsewhere, their place
being filled by a gap ; and they become the property of those in whose
estates (prediis) they have settled. The deluge is followed by fertility ;
the earth teems with grass. The sods are baked and decocted into brine.
In winter the land is hidden continuously by the tide, the fields looking
like pools ; so that it is hard to say in what element nature has set them,
since during one part of the year they can be sailed, and during another
ploughed. The inhabitants are savage, nimble-bodied, despising heavy
and wearisome (anxiam) armour ; they use targets and fight with missiles.
They surround their fields with dykes, and leap with poles. They put
a pile of sods below their dwellings and raise them on an elevated place.
Their community of name and speech proves that these people were
founded by the Frisians, who by chance came on that land when they
were looking for a new abode. It was marshy and damp at first, but they
made it firm by prolonged cultivation,"

8 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

[5] this violent inundation bring the inhabitants more profit or
peril, remains a vexed question. For when the [dykes of the]
estuaries, whereby the waves of the sea are commonly checked
among that people, are broken through by the greatness of
the storm, such a mass of waters is wont to overrun the fields
that it sometimes overwhelms1 not only the tilled lands, but
people and their dwellings likewise.

Eastwards, after Jutland, comes the Isle of Funen, cut off
from the mainland by a very narrow sound of sea. This
faces Jutland on the west, and on the east Zealand, which
is famed for its remarkable richness in the necessaries
of life. This latter island, being by far the most delightful
of all the provinces of our country, is held to occupy the heart
of Denmark, being divided by equal distances2 from the ex-
treme frontier ; on its eastern side the sea breaks through and
cuts off the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly
yields each year an abundant haul to the nets of the fishers.
Indeed, the whole sound3 is apt to be so thronged with fish
that any craft which strikes on them is with difficulty got off"
by hard rowing, and the prize is captured no longer by tackle,
but by simple use of the hands.

Moreover, Halland and Bleking, shooting forth from the
mass of Skaane like two branches from a parent trunk, are
linked to Gothland and to Norway, though with wide devia-
tions of course, and with various gaps consisting of fjords.

1 Overwhelms] A great part of this tract was drowned by the ocean,
and destroyed in 1634. — M.

- Divided by equal distances] Zealand is figured as the centre of a
circle, a segment of which is bounded by the coast-line of Denmark from
the Skawe to the mouth of the Elbe.

:: The whole sound] Oremnd, " The Sound."

4 In Bleking is to be seen a rock] Muller describes a spot in the parish
of Hoby in Bleking locally called Uunamo. There are two parallel lines,
winding in the shape of a serpent, whose head goes towards the marsh,
and its bulk towards the higher ground. The whole is 34 Danish ells
long, and the head and neck are about an ell broad, the rest gradually
less. The interspace is basanite, and has chinks either natural or arti-
ficial.

PREFACE. 9

Now in Bleking is to be seen a rock4 which travellers can
visit, dotted with letters in a strange character. For there
stretches from the southern sea into the desert of Vaarnsland
a road of rock, contained between two lines a little wax-
apart and very prolonged, between which is visible in the
midst a level space, graven all over with characters made to
be read. And though this lies so unevenly as sometimes
to break through the tops of the hills, sometimes to pass
along the valley bottoms, yet it can be discerned to preserve
continuous traces of the characters. Now Waldemar, well-
starred son of holy Canute, marvelled at these, and desired to
know their purport, and sent men to go along the rock and
gather with close search the series of the characters that were
to be seen there : they were then to denote them1 with certain
marks, using letters of similar shape. These men could not
gather any sort of interpretation of them, because owing to
the hollow space of the graving being partly smeared up with
mud and partly worn by the feet of travellers in the
trampling of the road, the long line that had been drawn [6]
became blurred. Hence it is plain that crevices, even in the
solid rock, if long drenched with wet, become choked either
by the solid washings of dirt or the moistening drip of
showers.

But since this country, by its closeness of language as much
as of position, includes Sweden and Norway, I will record their
divisions and their climates also as I have those of Denmark.
These territories, lying under the northern pole, and facing
Bootes and the Great Bear, reach with their utmost outlying
parts the latitude of the freezing zone ; and beyond these the
extraordinary sharpness of the cold suffers not human habita-
tion. Of these two, Norway has been allotted by the choice of
nature a forbidding rocky site. Craggy and barren, it is beset
all around by cliffs, and the huge desolate boulders give it

1 Denote them] virgidis quibusdam sub iisdem formarum apicibus adno-
tarent ; i.e., they were to copy or trace the shapes of the runes, to which
the word virgulae, "twigs", is especially apposite.

10 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the aspect of a rugged and a gloomy land ; in its furthest
part the day-star is not hidden even by night ; so that the
sun, scorning the vicissitudes of day and night, ministers in
unbroken presence an equal share of his radiance to either
season.

On the west of Norway comes the island called Ice-land,
with the mighty Ocean washing round it : a land very squalid
to dwell in,1 but noteworthy for marvels, both strange
occurrences and objects that pass belief. A spring is there
which, by the malignant reek of its water, destroys the
original nature of anything whatsoever. Indeed, all that is
sprinkled with the breath of its vapour is changed into the
hardness of stone. It remains a doubt whether it be more
marvellous or more perilous, that soft and flowing water
should be invested with such a stiffness, as by a sudden change
to transmute into the nature of stone whatsoever is put to it
and drenched with its reeking fume, nought but the shape
surviving. Here also are said to be other springs,2 which now
are fed with floods of rising water, and, overflowing in full
channels, cast a mass of spray upwards ; and now again their
bubbling flags, and they can scarce be seen below at the
bottom, and are swallowed into deep hiding far under ground.
Hence, when they are gushing over, they bespatter everything
about them with the white spume, but when they are spent
the sharpest eye cannot discern them. In this island there is
likewise a mountain,3 whose floods of incessant fire make it
look like a glowing rock, and which, by belching out flames,
keeps its crest in an everlasting blaze. This thing awakens

1 Very squalid to dwell in] obsoletae admodum habitationis. St. and
other old commentators took this strange expression as meaning that
Iceland had been settled in extreme antiquity. But, as M. points out,
Saxo must have known that this was not true ; nor could obsoletae mean
anything but " squalid", sqxalore horrldae.

2 An early description of the geysers.

3 A mountain] Hekla. A glowing rock] rupem sideream, i.e., like a
glowing star. M., objecting Jiagratlonem nihil ab altitudinem facere,
makes it equal to otdrjpeov, "iron", Hekla being compared to a vast
furnace ; which is somewhat strained.

PREFACE. 11

our wonder as much as those aforesaid ; namely, when a land
lying close to the extreme of cold can have such abundance
of matter to keep up the heat, as to furnish eternal fires with
unseen fuel, and supply an endless provocative to feed the [7]
burning. To this isle also, at fixed and appointed seasons,
there drifts a boundless mass of ice,1 and when it approaches
and begins to dash upon the rugged reefs, then, just as if the
cliffs rang reply, there is heard from the deep a roar of voices
and a changing din of extraordinary clamour. Whence it is
supposed that spirits, doomed to torture2 for the iniquity of
their guilty life, do here pay, by that bitter cold, the penalty
of their sins. And so any portion of this mass that is cut off
when the aforesaid ice breaks away from the land, soon slips
its bonds and bars, though it be made fast with ever so great
joins and knots.3 The mind stands dazed in wonder, that a
thing which is covered with bolts past picking, and shut in
by manifold and intricate barriers, should so depart after that
mass whereof it was a portion, as by its enforced and inevitable
flight to baffle the wariest watching. There also, set amono-
the ridges and crags of the mountains, is another kind of ice
which is known periodically to change and in a way reverse
its position, the upper parts sinking to the bottom, and the
lower again returning to the top. For proof of this story it is
told that certain men, while they chanced to be running over
the level of ice, rolled into the abysses before them, and into the
depths of the yawning crevasses, and were a little later picked
up dead without the smallest chink of ice above them. Hence
it is common for many to imagine that the urn of the sling of
ice4 first swallows them, and then a little after turns upside

1 Ice] This is the arctic ice that occasionally comes from Greenland.

2 Spirits, doomed to torture] " An idle belief about the prison of the
damned and the place of punishments, wholly unworthy of a Christian
man."— St.

3 Joins and knots] nodorum condylis, literally " joints of knots".

4 Urn of the sling of ice] fundae glacialis urna. A strange and mixed
metaphor, apparently comparing the chasm at once to the pocket of a
sling and the hollow of an urn. St. quotes parallels to the first simile.
Mr. Fiddes suggests the possibility of reading fundi glacitdisy " ice-field".

12 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

down and restores them. Here also is reported to bubble up
the water of a pestilent flood, which if a man taste, he falls
struck as though by poison. Also there are other springs,
whose gushing waters are said to resemble the quality of the
bowl of Ceres.1 There are also fires, which, though they cannot
consume linen,'2 yet devour so fluent a thing as water. Also there
is a rock, which flies over mountain-steeps, not from any out-
ward impulse, but of its innate and proper motion.

And now to unfold somewhat more thoroughly our delinea-
tion of Norway. It should be known that on the east it is
conterminous with Sweden and Gothland, and is bounded
on both sides by the waters of the neighbouring ocean. Also
on the north it faces a region3 whose position and name are
unknown, and which lacks all civilisation, but teems with
peoples of monstrous strangeness ; and a vast interspace of
flowing sea severs it from the portion of Norway opposite.
[8] This sea is found hazardous for navigation, and suffers few
that venture thereon to return in peace.

Moreover, the upper4 bend of the ocean, which cuts through
Denmark and flows past it, washes the southern side of Goth-
land with a gulf of some width ; while its lower channel,

1 Bowl of Ceres] Beer. These are the blkelldvr, ale-springs.

2 Linen] linum. St. keeps this reading of the Ed. Pr. , and quotes in
his note Bryniolf, who speaks of linen soaked in spirits of wine, which
burns away the substance without hurting it. M., reading lignum, and
followed by Holder, thinks the allusion is to some kind of naphtha, which
floats on, and could be said to "devour", the water. But it is question-
able to alter the text in order to replace one marvel by another.

3 A region] If the fabulous Giantland be not meant, there may be a
reference to Greenland.

4 Upper .... lower] The "upper" sea must be the Baltic, ending
in the Gulf of Bothnia, and the "lower" the Arctic Ocean, on the west
and north of the coast of Norway. Saxo's geography here is clearly some-
what vague, as he calls the space of mainland between the two seas
"brief", it being a long distance across. Perhaps (Mr. Fiddes suggests)
the analogy of the Adriatic {Mare Supernm) lying east of Mare Infer um
may help to account for the language. For early fur trade see Egilssaga and
Othere's Voyage in Alfred's Orosius.

PREFACE. 13

passing the northern sides of Gothland and Norway, turns
eastwards, widening much in breadth, and is bounded by a
curve of firm land. This limit of the sea the elders of our
race called Grandvik. Thus between Grandvik and the
Southern Sea there lies a short span of mainland, facing the
seas that wash on either shore ; and but that nature had set
this as a boundary where the billows almost meet, the tides
of the two seas would have flowed into one, and cut oft
Sweden and Norway into an island. The regions on the east
of these lands are inhabited by the Skric-Finns.1 This people
is used to an extraordinary kind of carriage,'2 and in its pas-
sion for the chase strives to climb untrodden mountains, and
attains the coveted ground at the cost of a slippery circuit.
For no crag juts out so high, but they can reach its crest by
fetching a cunning compass. For when they first leave the
deep valleys, they glide twisting and circling among the bases
of the rocks, thus making the route very roundabout by dint
of continually swerving aside, until, passing along the winding
curves of the tracks, they conquer the appointed summit.
This same people is wont to use the skins of certain beasts for
merchandise with its neighbours.

Now Sweden faces Denmark and Norway on the west, but
on the south and on much of its eastern side it is skirted by
the ocean. Past this eastward is to be found a vast accumu-
lation of motley barbarism.

That the country of Denmark was once cultivated and
worked by giants, is attested by the enormous stones attached
to the barrows and caves of the ancients. Should any man
question that this is accomplished by superhuman force, let
him look up at the tops of certain mountains and say, if he
knows how, what man hath carried such immense boulders
up to their crests. For anyone considering this marvel will
mark that it is inconceivable how a mass, hardly at all or
but with difficulty movable upon a level, could have been

1 Better Skri£o-Finni.

2 Carriage] M. explains ' ; snow -skates ", skier; but vehicula looks some-
what like "sledges" (so Schousbolle).

14 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

raised to so mighty a peak of so lofty a mountain by mere
human effort, or by the ordinary exertion of human strength.
But as to whether, after the Deluge went forth, there existed
[9] giants who could do such deeds, or men endowed beyond others
with bodily force, there is scant tradition to tell us.

But, as our countrymen aver, those who even to-day are
said to dwell in that rugged and inaccessible desert aforesaid,
are, by the mutable nature of their bodies,1 vouchsafed the
power of being now near, now far, and of appearing and
vanishing in turn. The approach to this desert is beset with
perils of a fearful kind, and has seldom granted to those who
attempted it an unscathed return. Now I will let my pen
pass to my theme.

1 Mutable nature of their bodies] For a good instance of this power
see the tale of Hardgrep, Bk. 1, where a whole song is devoted to
celebrating it.

BOOK ONE.

Now Dan and Angul, with whom the stock of the Danes [10]
begins, were begotten of Humble, their father, and were the
governors and not only the founders of our race. (Yet Dudo,2
the historian of Normandy, considers that the Danes are
sprung and named from the Danai.) And these two men,
though by the wish and favour of their country they gained
the lordship of the realm, and, owing to the wondrous deserts
of their bravery, got the supreme power by the consenting
voice of their countrymen, yet lived without the name of
king : the usage whereof was not then commonly resorted
to by any authority among our people.

Of these two, Angul, the fountain, so runs tradition, of the
beginnings of the Anglian race, caused his name to be applied
to the district which he ruled. This was an easy kind of
memorial wherewith to immortalise his fame : for his successors
a little later, when they gained possession of Britain, changed
the original name of the island for a fresh title, that of their
own land. This action was much thought of by the ancients :
witness Bede,3 no mean figure among the writers of the Church,
who was a native of England, and made it his care to embody

1 The Ed. Pr. prefixes this book with the following title : " The first
book of the Danish History, concerning the origin of the Danes, gathered
from Danish records with much toil and keen judgment, by Saxo, man of
letters [grammatici] by calling, by nation a Zealander, and by far the most
eloquent writer of his time."

2 Dudo] De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, Bk. i.
" Igitur Daci nuncupantur a aids Dcrnai, vet Demi, glorianturque ac- ex
Antenore progenitor." See Rydberg, pp. 22 (E. tr.), for the "Trojan-
migration" sapa.

3 Bede] Hint. EccL, i, 15 sqq.

16 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the doings of his country in the most hallowed treasury of his
pages ; deeming it equally a religious duty to glorify in writing
the deeds of his land, and to chronicle the history of the
Church.

From Dan, however, so saith antiquity, the pedigrees of our
kings have flowed in glorious series, like channels from some
parent spring. Grytha, a matron most highly revered among
the Teutons, bore him two sons, Humble and Lother.

The ancients, when they were to choose a king, were
[n] wont to stand on stones planted in the ground, and to pro-
claim their votes, in order to foreshadow from the steadfast-
ness of the stones that the deed would be lasting. Bv this
ceremony Humble was elected king at his father's death, thus
winning a novel favour from his country ; but by the malice of
ensuing fate he fell from a king into a common man. For he
was taken by Lother in war, and bought his life by yielding
up his crown ; such, in truth, were the only terms of escape
offered him in his defeat. Forced, therefore, by the injustice
of a brother to lay down his sovereignt}^, he furnished the lesson
to mankind, that there is less safety, though more pomp, in
the palace than in the cottage. Also he bore his wrong so
meekly, that he seemed to rejoice at his loss of title as though
it were a blessing ; and I think he had a shrewd sense of the
quality of a king's estate. But Lother played the king as
insupportably as he had played the soldier, inaugurating his
reign straightway with arrogance and crime; for he counted it
uprightness to strip all the most eminent of life or goods, and
to clear his country of its loyal citizens, thinking all his equals
in birth his rivals for the crown. He was soon chastised
for his wickedness ; for he met his end in an insurrection of
his country ; which had once bestowed on him his kingdom,
and now bereft him of his life.

Skioed, his son, inherited his natural bent, but not his
behaviour ; avoiding his inborn perversity by great discretion1

1 Discretion] industriam. The word is used in many senses in Saxo,
varying from "diligence" to " wisdom"; but generally denotes a mixture
of parts and perseverance. Indudria is a particular feature of Amleth,
Bks. in and IV.

BOOK ONE. 17

in his tender years, and thus escaping all traces of his
father's taint. So he appropriated what was alike the more
excellent and the earlier share of the family character ; for he
wisely departed from his father's sins, and became a happy
counterpart of his grandsire's virtues. This man was famous
in his youth among the huntsmen of his father for his con-
quest of a monstrous beast : a marvellous incident, which
augured his future prowess. For he chanced to obtain leave
from his guardians, who were rearing him very carefully, to
go and see the hunting. A bear of extraordinar}^ size met
him ; he had no spear, but with the girdle that he commonly
wore he contrived to bind it, and gave it to his escort to kill.
More than this, many champions of tried prowess were at the
same time of his life vanquished by him singly ; of these Attal
and Skat were renowned and famous. While but fifteen years
of age he was of unusual bodily size, and displayed mortal
strength in its perfection1; and so mighty were the proofs of
his powers that the rest of the kings of the Danes were called
after him by a common title, the Skioldungs. Those who
were wont to live an abandoned and flaccid life, and to sap
their self-control by wantonness, this man vigilantly spurred
to the practice of virtue in an active career. Thus the ripeness
of Skiold's spirit outstripped the fulness of his strength, and he [12]
fought battles at which one of his tender years could scarce look
on. And as he thus waxed2 in years and valour he beheld3 the
perfect beauty of Alfhild, daughter of the King of the Saxons,
sued for her hand, and, for her sake, in the sight of the armies of
the Teutons and the Danes, challenged and fought with Skat,

1 Perfection] Here, with the words specimen preferebat, begins the
Angers fragment (A), described in the Introduction. The variants in
the second handwriting (2 var.) of the glosses, conjectured to be Saxo's
own, are translated (when of any importance) in the notes : the variants
of the other scribe (var.), and the differences between A and the Ed. Pr.,
are given now and then.

2 Waxed] procursu. Or, reading pirocinio (i.e., tirocinia) with 2 var.,
"during the novitiate of his years and valour."

3 Beheld] intuitu. Or, reading gratia with 2 var., "wooed A. because
of her perfect beauty."

18 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

governor of Allomannia, and a suitor for the same maiden;
whom he slew, afterwards crushing the whole nation of the
Allemannians, and forcing them to pay tribute,1 they being
subjugated by the death of their captain. Skiold was eminent
for patriotism as well as arms. For he annulled unrighteous
laws, and most needfully executed whatsoever made for the
amendment of his country's condition. Further, he regained
by his virtue the realm that his father's wickedness had lost.
He was the first to proclaim the law abolishing manumissions.
A slave, to whom he had chanced to grant his freedom, had
attempted his life by stealthy treachery, and he exacted a bitter
penalty : as though it were just that the guilt of one freedman
should be visited upon all. He paid off all men's debts from his
own treasury, and contended, so to say, with all other monarchs
in courage, bounty, and generous dealing. The sick he used
to foster, and charitably gave medicines to those sore stricken;
bearing witness that he had taken on him the care of his
country and not of himself. He used to enrich his nobles
not only with home taxes, but also with plunder taken in
war ; being wont to aver that the prize-money should flow to
the soldiers, and the glory to the general.

Thus delivered of his bitterest rival in wooing, he took as
the prize of combat the maiden, for the love of whom he had
fought, and wedded her in marriage. Soon after, he had by
her a son, Geam, whose wondrous parts savoured so strongly of
his father's virtues, that he was deemed to tread in their very
footsteps. The days of Gram's youth were enriched with
surpassing gifts of mind and body, and he raised them to the
crest of renown. Posterity did such homage to his greatness
that in the most ancient poems of the Danes royal dignity is
implied in his very name.2 He practised with the most
zealous training whatsoever serves to sharpen and strengthen
the bodily powers. Taught by the fencers, he trained himself

1 Forcing them to pay tribute] Saxo, or his scribe, laboured at this
expression. A has tribiiti lege choercuit: var. has tribnti ditione or
pension* perdomuit.

2 Very name] Old Norse gramr, "chief".

BOOK ONE. 19

by sedulous practice to parrying and dealing blows. He took
to wife the daughter of his upbringer,1 Roar, she being his
foster-sister and of his own years, in order the better to show
his gratefulness for his nursing. A little while after he o-ave
her in marriage to a certain Bess, since he had ot'ttiuics used
his strenuous service. In this partner of his warlike deeds lie [13 J
put his trust ; and he has left it a question whether he has won
more renown by Bess's valour or his own.

Gram, chancing to hear that Groa, daughter of Sigtryg,
King of the Swedes, was plighted to a certain giant, and
holding accursed an union so unworthy of the blood royal,
entered on a Swedish war ; being destined to emulate the
prowess of Hercules in resisting the attempts of monsters.
He went into Gothland, and, in order to frighten people out
of his path, strode on clad in goats' skins, swathed in the
motley hides of beasts, and grasping in his right hand a dread-
ful weapon, thus feigning the attire of a giant : when he met
Groa herself riding with a very small escort of women on
foot, and making her way, as it chanced, to the forest-pools
to bathe. She thought it was her betrothed who had hastened
to meet her, and was scared with feminine alarm at so
strange a garb : so, flinging up the reins, and shaking terribly
all over, she began in the song of her country, thus :

" I see that a giant, hated of the king, has come, and
darkens the highways with his stride. Or my eyes play me
false ; for it has oft befallen bold warriors to skulk behind
the skin of a beast."

Then began Bess: "Maiden, seated on the shoulders of the
steed, tell me, pouring forth in thy turn words of answer,
what is thv name, and of what line art thou born ?"

Groa replied : " Groa is my name ; my sire is a king, glorious
in blood, gleaming in armour. Disclose to us, thou also, who [14J
thou art, or whence sprung !"

To whom Bess : " I am Bess, brave in battle, ruthless to

1 Upbringer] educatoris. The var. glosses pedagogi. The foster-
father was charged with the rearing and teaching of his fosterling.

20 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

foes, a terror to nations, and oft drenching my right hand
in the blood of foes."

Then said Groa : " Who, prithee, commands your lines ?
Under what captain raise ye the war-standards ? What prince
controls the battle ? Under whose guidance is the war made
ready ?"

Bess in answer : " Gram, the blest in battle, rules the array :
force nor fear can swerve him ; naming pyre and cruel sword
and ocean billow have never made him afraid. Led by him,
maiden, we raise the golden standards of war."

Groa once more : " Turn your feet and go back hence, lest

Sigtryg vanquish you all with his own array, and fasten you

to a cruel stake, your throats haltered with the cord, and

[15] doom your carcases to the stiff noose, and, glaring evilly,

thrust out your corpses to the hungry raven."

Bess again : " Gram, ere he shall shut his own eyes in
death, shall first make him a ghost, and, smiting him on the
crest,1 shall send him to Tartarus. We fear no camp of the
Swedes. Why threaten us with ghastly dooms, maiden ?"

Groa answered him : " Behold, I will ride thence to see
again the roof of my father which I know, that I may not
rashly set eyes on the array of my brother2 who is coming.
And I pray that your death -doom may tarry for you who
abide."

Bess replied : " Daughter, to thy father go back with good
cheer ; nor imprecate swift death upon us, nor let choler shake
[16] thy bosom. For often has a woman, harsh at first and hard
to a wooer, yielded the second time."

Whereupon Gram could brook no longer to be silent, and
pitching his tones gruffly, so as to mimic a gruesome and
superhuman voice, accosted the maiden thus :

" Let not the maiden fear the brother of the fleet giant, nor

1 Smiting him on the crest] vertice pleocum ; 2 var. has cesum.

2 My brother] No brother has been mentioned. St. is inclined to
read patris, or to think "brother" a term of endearment for the giant to
whom she is promised. M. interprets "thy brother", i.e., "the giant
who looks like thee". None of these views are quite satisfactory.

BOOK ONE. 21

turn pale because I am nigh her. For I am sent by Grip,1
and never seek the couch and embrace of damsels save when
their wish matches mine."

Groa answered : " Who so mad as to wish to be the leman
of giants ? Or what woman could love the bed that genders
monsters ? Who could be the wife of demons, and know the
seed whose fruit is monstrous ? Or who would fain share
her couch with a barbarous giant ? Who caresses thorns with
her fingers ? Who would mingle honest kisses with mire ?
Who would unite shaggy limbs to smooth ones which corre-
spond not ? Full ease of love cannot be taken when nature
cries out against it : nor doth the love customary in the use
of women sort with monsters."

Gram rejoined : " Oft with conquering hand I have tamed
the necks of mighty kings, defeating with stronger arm their
insolent pride. Thence take red-glowing gold, that the troth
may be made firm by the gift, and that the faith to be brought
to our wedlock may stand fast,"

Thus speaking, he cast off his disguises, and revealed his [J7]
natural comeliness ; and by a single sight of him he filled the
damsel with well-nigh as much joy as he had struck her with
fear before at his counterfeit. She was even incited to his
embraces by the splendour of his beauty ; nor did he fail to
offer her the gifts of love. Going further, he learnt from those
he met, that the road was beset by two robbers. These he slew
simply by charging them as they rushed covetously forth to
despoil him. This done, loth to seem to have done any service
to the soil of an enemy, he put timbers2 under the carcases of
the slain, fastened them thereto, and stretched them so as to
counterfeit an upright standing position ; so that in their
death they might menace in seeming those whom their life
had harmed in truth ; and that, terrible even after their

1 Grip] May be the giant to whom Groa is betrothed ; but the frag-
mentary nature of the song leaves this doubtful. — A ends with the last
line of this speech.

3 He put timbers] For a similar device cp. those of Amleth in Bk. iv,
and Fridleif, Bk. iv ad fin.

22 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

decease, they might block the road in effigy as much as they
had once in deed. Whence it appears that in slaying the
robbers he took thought for himself and not for Sweden ; for
he betokened by so singular an act how great a hatred of
Sweden filled him. Having heard from the diviners that
Sigtryg could only be conquered by gold, he straightway
fixed a knob of gold to a wooden mace, equipped himself
therewith in the war wherein he attacked the king, and
obtained his desire. This exploit was besung by Bess in a
most zealous strain of eulogy :

" Gram, the fierce wielder of the prosperous mace, knowing
not the steel, rained blows on the outstretched sword, and with
a stock beat off the lances of the mighty.

"Following the decrees and will of the gods, he brought
low the glory of the powerless Swedes, doing their king to
death and crushing him with the stiff gold.

" For he pondered on the arts of war : he wielded in his
clasp the ruddy-flashing wood, and victoriously with noble
stroke made their fallen captain writhe.

" Shrewdly he conquered with the hardness of gold him
whom fate forbade should be slain by steel ; unsworded, waging
war with the worthier metal.
[18] " This treasure, for which its deviser claims glory and the
height of honour, shall abide yet more illustrious hereafter,
known far and wide in ampler fame."

Having now slain Sigtryg, the King of Sweden, Gram desired
to confirm his possession of the empire which he had won in
war ; and therefore, suspecting Swarin the governor of Goth-
land of aspiring to the crown, he challenged him to combat,
and slew him. This man's brethren, of whom he had seven
lawfully born, and nine the sons of a concubine, sought to
avenge their brother's death, but Gram, in an unequal contest,
cut them off.

Gram, for his marvellous prowess, was granted a share1 in
the sovereignty by his father, who was now in extreme age,
and thought it better and likewise more convenient to give
his own blood a portion of the supremacy of the realm, than

BOOK ONE. 23

now in the setting of his life to administer it without a partner.
Therefore King, a nobly born Zealander, stirred the greater
part of the Danes with desire for insurrection ; fancying that
one of these men was unripe for his rank, and that the other
had run the course of his powers, alleging the weakness in
years of both, and declaring that the wandering wit of an old
man made the one, and that of a boy the other, unfit for royal
power. But they fought and crushed him, making him an
example to all men, that no season of life is to be deemed in-
compatible with valour.

Many other deeds also King Gram did. He declared war
against Sumble, King of the Finns ; but when he set eyes upon
the King's daughter, Signe, he laid down his arms, the f oeman
turned into the suitor, and, promising to put away his own
wife, he plighted troth with her. But, while much busied
with a war against Norway, which he had taken up against
King Swipdag for debauching his sister and his daughter, he
heard from a messenger that Signe had, by Sumble's treachery,
been promised in marriage to Henry King of Saxony. Then,
inclining to love the maiden more than his soldiers, he left his
army, privily made his way to Finland, and came in upon the
wedding, which was already begun. Putting on a garb of the
utmost meanness, he lay down at table in a seat of no honour.
When asked what he brought, he professed skill in leechcraft.
At last, when all were drenched in drunkenness, he gazed at
the maiden, and amid the revels of the riotous banquet, cursing
deep the fickleness of women, and vaunting loud his own
deeds of valour, he poured out the greatness of his wrath in
a song like this :

"Singly against eight at once I drove the darts of death, [19]
amj smote nine with back-swung sword, when I slew Swarin,
who wrrongfully assumed his honours and tried to win fame
unmerited ; wherefore I have oft dyed in foreign blood my blade
red with death and reeking with slaughter, and have never
blenched at the clash of dagger or the sheen of helmet. Now
Signe, the daughter of Sumble, vilely spurns me, and endures
vows not mine, cursing her ancient troth ; and, conceiving an

24 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

ill-ordered love, commits a notable act of female lightness ;
for she entangles, lures, and bestains princes, rebuffing beyond
all others the lordly of birth ; yet remaining firm to none,
but ever wavering, and bringing to birth impulses doubtful
and divided."

And as he spoke he leapt up from where he lay, and there
he cut Henry down while at the sacred board and the embraces
of his friends, carried off his bride from amongst the brides-
maids, felled most of the guests, and bore her off with him in
his ship. Thus the bridal was turned into a funeral ; and
the Finns might learn the lesson, that hands should not be
laid upon the loves of other men.

After this Swipdag, King of Norway, destroyed Gram, who
was attempting to avenge the outrage on his sister and the
attempt on his daughter's chastity. This battle was notable
for the presence of the Saxon forces, who were incited to help
Swipdag, not so much by love of him, as by desire to avenge
Henry.

Guthorm and Hadding, the sons of Gram (Groa being the
mother of the first and Signe of the second), were sent over to
Sweden in a ship by their foster-father, Brage (Swipdag being
now master of Denmark), and put in charge of the giants
Wagnhofde and Hafle, for guard as well as rearing.

As I shall have briefly to relate doings of these folk, and
would fain not seem to fabricate what conflicts with common
belief or outsteps the faithful truth, it is worth the knowing
that there were in old times three kinds of magicians who by
diverse sleights practised extraordinary marvels. The first of
these were men of monstrous stock, termed by antiquity giants ;
these by their exceeding great bodily stature surpassed the
[20] size natural to mankind. Those who came after these were
the first who gained skill in divination from entrails, and
attained the Pythonic art. These surpassed the former in
briskness of mental parts as much as they fell behind them
in bodily condition. Constant wars for the supremacy were
waged between these and the giants ; till at last the sorcerers
prevailed, subdued the tribe of giants by arms, and acquired

BOOK ONE. 25

not merely the privilege of ruling, but also the repute of being
divine. Both of these kinds had extreme skill in deluding the
eyesight, knowing how to obscure their own faces and those
of others with divers semblances, and to darken the true
aspects of things with beguiling shapes. But the third kind of
men, springing from the mutual union of the first two, did not
answer to the nature of their parents either in bodily size or
in practice of magic arts ; yet these gained credit for divinity
with minds that were befooled by their jugglings.

Nor must we marvel if, tempted by the prodigious miracles
of these folk, the barbaric world fell to worshipping a false
religion, when others like unto these, who were mere mortals,
but were reverenced with divine honours, beguiled even the
shrewdness of the Latins. I have touched on these things lest,
when I relate of sleights and marvels, I be checked by the
disbelief of the reader. Now I will leave these matters and
return to my theme.

Swipdag, now that he had slain Gram, was enriched with the
realms of Denmark and Sweden ; and because of the frequent
importunities of his wife he brought back from banishment
her brother Guthorm, upon his promising tribute, and made
him ruler of the Danes. But Hadding preferred to avenge
his father rather than take a boon from his foe.

This man's nature so waxed and throve that in the early
season of his youth he was granted the prime of manhood.
Leaving the pursuit of pleasure, he was constantly zealous in
warlike exercises ; remembering that he was the son of a
fighting father, and was bound to spend his whole span of
life in approved deeds of warfare. Hardgrep, daughter of
Wagnhofde, tried to enfeeble his firm spirit with her lures of
love, contending and constantly averring that he ought to
offer the first dues of the marriage bed in wedlock with her,
who had proffered to his childhood most zealous and careful
fostering, and had furnished him with his first rattle. Nor
was she content with admonishing in plain words, but began a
strain of song as follows :

11 Why doth thy life thus waste and wander ? Why dost

26 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

[21] thou pass thy years unwed, following arms, thirsting for
throats ? Nor does my beauty draw thy vows. Carried away
by excess of frenzy, thou art little prone to love. Steeped in
blood and slaughter, thou judgest wars better than the bed, nor
refreshest thy soul with incitements. Thy fierceness finds no
leisure; dalliance is far from thee, and savagery fostered.
Nor is thy hand free from blasphemy while thou loathest
the rites of love. Let this hateful strictness pass away, let
that loving warmth approach, and plight the troth of love to
me, who gave thee the first breasts of milk in childhood,
and helped thee, playing a mother's part, duteous to thy
needs."

When he answered that the size of her body was unwieldy
for the embraces of a mortal, since doubtless her nature was
framed in conformity to her giant stock, she said :

" Be not moved1 by my unwonted look of size. For my
substance is sometimes thinner, sometimes ampler ; now
meagre, now abundant ; and I alter and change at my
pleasure the condition of my body, which is at one time
shrivelled up and at another time expanded : now my tall-
ness rises to the heavens, and now I settle down into a human
being, under a more bounded shape."

As he still faltered, and was slow to believe her words, she
added the following song :

" Youth, fear not the converse of my bed. I change my
bodily outline in twofold wise, and am wont to enjoin a double
law upon my sinews. For I conform to shapes of different
figure in turn, and am altered at my own sweet will ; now
my neck is star-high, and soars nigh to the lofty Thunderer ;
then it falls and declines to human strength, and plants again
on earth that head which was near the firmament. Thus I
lightly shift my body into diverse phases, and am beheld
in varying wise; for changefully now cramped stiffness draws
in my limbs, now the virtue of my tall body unfolds them, and
[22] suffers them to touch the cloud-tops. Now I am short and

1 Be not moved] Cp. Preface of Saxo ad fin. for this power of alter-
ing size.

BOOK ONE. 27

straitened, now stretch out with loosened knee ; and I have
mutably changed myself like wax into strange aspects. 11«'
who knows of Proteus should not marvel at me. My shape
never stays the same, and my aspect is twofold : at one time
it contracts its outstretched limbs, at another shoots them out
when closed ; now disentangling the members and now rolling
them back into a coil. I dart out my ingathered limbs, and
presently, while they are strained, I wrinkle them up, dividing
ni}' countenance between shapes twain, and adopting two
forms; with the greater of these I daunt the fierce, while
with the shorter I seek the embraces of men."

By thus averring she obtained the embraces of Hadding ;
and her love for the youth burned so high that when she
found him desirous of revisiting his own land, she did not
hesitate to follow him in man's attire, and counted it as joy to
share his hardships and perils. While upon the journey she
had undertaken, she chanced to enter in his company, in order
to pass the night, a dwelling, the funeral of whose dead master
was being conducted with melancholy rites. Here, desiring
to pry into the purposes of heaven by the help of a magical
espial, she graved on wood some very dreadful spells, and
caused Hadding to put them under the dead man's tongue ;
thus forcing him to utter, with the voice so given, a strain
terrible to hear.

[Follows the strain magically uttered1:]

" Perish accursed he who hath dragged me back from those
below, let him be punished for calling a spirit out of bale !

" AVhoso hath called me, who am lifeless and dead, back
from the abode below, and hath brought me again into upper
air, let him pay full penalty with his own death in the dreary
shades beneath livid Styx.*2 Behold, counter to my will and
purpose, I must declare some bitter tidings. For as ye go

1 Follows . . .] in Ed. Pr. Omitted by St. as probably the copyist's
insertion.

2 Styx] i.e., Hell. "Bale", above, renders Tartaro. Saxo often
Latinises Norse mythological words, and we have sometimes followed
him in translating.

28 SAXO GRAMMATTOUS.

away from this house ye will come to the narrow path of a
grove, and will be a prey to demons all about. Then she
who hath brought our death back from out the void, and
has given us a sight of this light once more, by her prayers
wondrously drawing forth the ghost and casting it into the
bonds of the body, shall bitterly bewail her rash enterprise.

" Perish accursed he who hath draped me back from those
below, let him be punished for calling a spirit out of bale !
" For when the black pestilence of the blast that en-
[23] genders monsters has crushed out the inmost entrails with
stern effort, and when their hand has swept away the living
with cruel nail, tearing off limbs and rending ravished
bodies ; then, Hadding, thy life shall survive, nor shall the
nether realms bear off thy ghost, nor thy spirit pass heavily
to the waters of Styx ; but the woman who hath made
the wretched ghost come back hither, crushed by her own
guilt, shall appease our dust ; she shall be dust herself.

" Perish accursed he who hath draped me back from those
below, let him be punished for calling a spirit out of bale !"

So, while they were passing the night in the forest foretold
them, in a shelter framed of twigs, a hand of extraordinary
size was seen to wander over the inside of the dwelling.
Terrified at this portent, Hadding entreated the aid of his
nurse. Then Hardgrep, expanding her limbs and swelling to
a mighty bigness, gripped the hand fast and held it to her
foster-child to hew off. What flowed from the noisome
wounds he dealt was not so much blood as corrupt matter.
But she paid the penalty of this act, presently being torn
in pieces by her kindred of the same stock ; nor did her con-
stitution or her bodily size help her against feeling the attacks
of her foes' claws.

Hadding, thus bereft of his foster-mother, chanced to be
made an ally in a solemn covenant to a rover, Lysir,1 by a
certain man of great age that had lost an eye, who took pity on
his loneliness. Now the ancients, when about to make a league,

1 Query Lyfir.

BOOK ONE. 29

were wont to besprinkle their footsteps with the blood of one
another, so to ratify their pledge of friendship by reciprocal
barter of blood. Lysir and Hadding, being bound thus in the
strictest league, declared war against Loker, the tyrant of
the Kurlanders. They were defeated ; and the old man afore-
mentioned took Hadding, as he fled on horseback, to his own
house, and there refreshed him with a certain pleasant draught,
telling him that he would find himself quite brisk and sound
in body. This prophetic advice he confirmed by a song as
follows :

" As thou farest hence, a foe, thinking thee a deserter, will [24]
assail thee, that he may keep thee bound and cast thee to be
devoured by the mangling jaws of beasts. But fill thou the
ears of the warders with divers tales, and when they have
done the feast and deep sleep holds them, snap off the fetters
upon thee and the loathly chains. Turn thy feet thence, and
when a little space has fled, with all thy might rise up against
a swift lion who is wont to toss the carcases of the prisoners,
and strive with thy stout arms against his savage shoulders,
and with naked sword search his heart-strings. Straightway
put thy throat to him and drink the steaming blood, and
devour with ravenous jaws the banquet of his body. Then
renewed strength will come to thy limbs, then shall un-
dreamed-of might enter thy sinews, and an accumulation of
stout force shall bespread and nerve thy frame throughout.
I myself will pave the path to thy prayers, and will subdue
the henchmen in sleep, and keep them snoring throughout the
lingering night."

And as he spoke, he took back the young man on his horse,
and set him where he had found him. Hadding cowered
trembling under his mantle ; but so extreme was his wonder
at the event, that with keen vision he peered through its
holes. And he saw that before the steps of the horse lay the
sea ; but was told not to steal a glimpse of the forbidden thing,
and therefore turned aside his amazed eyes from the dread
spectacle of the roads that he journeyed. Then he was taken
by Loker, and found by very sure experience that every point

30 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

of the prophecy was fulfilled upon him. So he assailed
Handvan,1 king of the Hellespont, who was entrenched behind
an impregnable defence of wall in his city Duna, and with-
stood him not in the field, but with battlements. Its summit
defying all approach by a besieger, he ordered that the divers
kinds of birds who were wont to nest in that spot should be
caught by skilled fowlers, and he caused wicks'2 which had
been set on fire to be fastened beneath their wings. The
birds sought the shelter of their own nests, and filled the
city with a blaze ; all the townsmen flocked to quench it, and
left the gates defenceless. He attacked and captured Handvan,
but suffered him to redeem his life with gold for ransom.
Thus, when he might have cut off his foe, he preferred to grant
him the breath of life ; so far did his mercy qualify his rage.

After this he prevailed over a great force of men of the
East, and came back to Sweden. Swipdag met him with a
[25] great fleet off Gottland3; but Hadding attacked and destroyed
him. And thus he advanced to a lofty pitch of renown, not
only by the fruits of foreign spoil, but by the trophies of
his vengeance for his brother and his father. And he
exchanged exile for royalty, for he became king of his own
land as soon as he regained it.

At this time there was one Odin, who was credited over all
Europe with the honour, which was false, of godhead, but
used more continually to sojourn at Upsala ; and in this spot,
either from the sloth of the inhabitants or from its own
pleasantness, he vouchsafed to dwell with somewhat especial
constancy. The kings of the North, desiring more zealously

1 Handvan] Hwndvanw. See Rydberg, p. 204, E. tr. The " Helles-
pont" is strange. The Danes in the Middle Ages believed in some sea
route from the Baltic through Scythia to the South and the Egean.

2 Wicks] fvii'jo*. Cp. Yerg. Georg. i. 392. Possibly the word means
tinder or touchwood of some kind, or some slow-burning fungus. Both
Sch. and Grundtvig have simply Svampe. "mushrooms". The word and
the device are repeated in Bk. 11, and also at the end of Bk. iv.

3 Gottland] Gudlandia, the island. So the Ed. Pr., though the
paraphrasts have Guthlandia and Gothlandia, which might possibly be
Gothland. But Saxo's invariable word for the latter is (lolliia.

BOOK ONE. 31

to worship his deity, embounded his likeness in a golden
image ; and this statue, which betokened their homage, they
transmitted with much show of worship to Byzantium,1 fetter-
ing even the effisned arms with a serried mass of bracelets.
Odin was overjoyed at such notoriety, and greeted warmly
the devotion of the senders. But his queen Frigga,2 desiring
to go forth more beautified, called smiths, and had the gold
stripped from the statue. Odin hanged them, and mounted
the statue upon a pedestal, which by the marvellous skill of
his art he made to speak when a mortal touched it. But still
Frigga preferred the splendour of her own apparel to the
divine honours of her husband, and submitted herself to the
embraces of one of her servants ; and it was by this man's
device she broke down the image, and turned to the service
of her private wantonness that gold which had been devoted
to public idolatry. Little thought she of practising unchastity,
that she might the easier satisfy her greed, this woman so
unworthy to be the consort of a god ; but what should I
here add, save that such a godhead was worthy of such a
wife ? So great was the error that of old befooled the
minds of men. Thus Odin, wounded by the double trespass
of his wife, resented the outrage to his image as keenly as
that to his bed ; and, ruffled by these two stinging dishonours,
took to an exile overflowing with noble shame, imagining so to
wipe off the slur of his ignominy.

When he had retired, one Mit-othin, who was famous for
his juggling tricks, was likewise quickened, as though by
inspiration from on high, to seize the opportunity of feigning
to be a god ; and, wrapping the minds of the barbarians in
fresh darkness, he led them by the renown of his jugglings to
pay holy observance to his name. He said that the wrath of
the gods could never be appeased nor the outrage to their
deity expiated by mixed and indiscriminate sacrifices, and [26]
therefore forbade that prayers for this end should be put up
without distinction, appointing to each of those above his

1 Byzantium] See below, Bk. 111, note.

2 Corp. Poet. Bar., i. 243 (HyndluljoS).

32 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

especial drink-offering. But when Odin was returning, he
cast away all help of jugglings, went to Finland1 to hide him-
self, and was there attacked and slain by the inhabitants.
Even in his death his abominations were made manifest, for
those who came nigh his barrow were cut off by a kind of
sudden death ; and after his end, he spread such pestilence
that he seemed almost to leave a filthier record in his death
than in his life : it was as though he would extort from the
guilty a punishment for his slaughter. The inhabitants, being
in this trouble, took the body out of the mound, beheaded it,
and impaled it through the breast with a sharp stake ; and
herein that people found relief.

The death of Odin's wife revived the ancient splendour of
his name, and seemed to wipe out the disgrace upon his deity ;
so, returning from exile, he forced all those, who had used
his absence to assume the honours of divine rank, to resign
them as usurped ; and the gangs of sorcerers that had arisen
he scattered like a darkness before the advancing glory of
his godhead. And he forced them by his power not only
to lay down their divinity, but further to quit the country,
deeming that they, who tried to foist themselves so iniquitously
into the skies, ought to be outcasts from the earth.

Meanwhile Asmund, the son of Swipdag, fought with
Hadding to avenge his father. And when he heard that
Henry his son, his love for whom he set even before his own
life, had fallen fighting valiantly, his soul longed for death,
and loathed the light of day, and he made a song in a strain
like this :

"What brave hath dared put on my armour ? The sheen
of the helmet serves not him who tottereth, nor doth the
breastplate fitly shelter him that is sore spent.2 Our son is
slain, let us riot in battle ; my eager love of him driveth me
to my death, that I may not be left outliving my dear child.
In each hand I am fain to grasp the sword; now without
shield let us ply our warfare bare-breasted, with flashing

Finland] Pheonia, so M. ; perhaps Fionia (Funen), as Sch. has it.
2 Sore spent] fuuum; perhaps rather " prostrate'.

BOOK TWO. g-.

homage to his noble virtues in that battle, that his slayin,
inspired in all the longing to meet their end, and union wtth
mm in death was accounted sweeter than life

Hiartuar rejoiced, and had the tables spread for feasting
bidding the banquet come after the battle, and fain to honour
his triumph with a carouse. And when he was well filled
therewith, he said that it was a matter of great marvel to
him, that out of all the army of Rolf no man had been found
to take thought for his life by flight or fraud. Hence, he
said it had been manifest with what zealous loyalty they had
kept their love for their king, because they had not endured
to survive him He also blamed his ill fortune, because it
had not suffered the homage of a single one of them to be
left for himself: protesting that he would very willingly
accept the service of such men. Then Wigg came forth, and
Hiartuar, as though he were congratulating him on the gift
asked him if he were willing to fight for him. Wigg assent-
ing, he drew and proffered him a sword. But Wigg refused the
point, and asked for the hilt, saying first that this had been
Rolfs custom when he handed forth a sword to his soldiers
*or in old time those who were about to put themselves in
dependence on the king used to promise fealty by touching
the hilt of the sword And in this wise Wigg clasped thf
hilt and then drove the point through Hiartuar; thus gain-
ing the vengeance which he had promised Rolf to accomplish for
him. When he had done this, and the soldiers of Hiartuar
rushed at him, he exposed his body to them eagerly and
exultantly, shouting that he felt more joy in the slaughter
of the tyrant than bitterness at his own. Thus the feast was
turned into a funeral, and the wailing of burial followed the
joy of victory. Glorious, ever memorable hero, who valiantly
kept his vow, and voluntarily courted death, staining with
blood by his service the tables of the despot ! For the lively
valour of his spirit feared not the hands of the slaughterers
when he had once beheld the place where Rolf had been
wont to live bespattered with the blood of his slayer. Thus
the royalty of Hiartuar was won and ended on the same day

82 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

For whatsoever is gotten with guile melts away in like fashion
as it is sought, and no fruits are long-lasting that have been
[68] won by treachery and crime. Hence it came to pass that the
Swedes, who had a little before been possessors of Denmark,
came to lose even their own liberty. For they were straight-
way cut oft' by the Zealanders, and paid righteous atonement
to the injured shades of Rolf. In this way does stern fortune
commonly avenge the works of craft and cunning.

END OF BOOK TWO.

BOOK THREE.

After Hiarfcuar, Hother, whom I mentioned above, the [69]
brother of Athisl, and also the fosterling of King Gewar
became sovereign of both realms. It will be easier to relate
his times if I begin with the beginning of his life. For
if the earlier years of his career are not doomed to silence, the
latter ones can be more fully and fairly narrated.

When Helgi had slain Hodbrodd, his son Hother passed the
length of his boyhood under the tutelage of King Gewar.
While a stripling, he excelled in strength of body all his foster-
brethren and compeers. Moreover he was gifted with many
accomplishments of mind. He was very skilled in swimming
and archery, and also with the gloves ; and further was as
nimble as such a youth could be, his training beino- equal
to his strength. Though his years were unripe, his°richly-
dowered spirit surpassed them. None was more skilful on
lyre or harpi ; and he was cunning on the timbrel, on the lute,
and in every modulation of stringed instruments. With his
changing measures he could sway the feelings of men to what
passions he would : he knew how to fill human hearts with joy
or sadness, with pity or with hatred, and used to enwrap the
soul with the delight or terror of the ear. All these accom-
plishments of the youth pleased Nanna, the daughter of Gewar
mightily, and she began to seek his embraces. For the valour
of a youth will often kindle a maid, and the courage of those
whose looks are not so winning is often acceptable. For love

1 Lyre or harp] Saxo names chelae, lyre, sisfrum, barbiton, but it is
unlikely that he meant them to answer to distinct forms of instrument
Me piles up the Latin equivalents much as in Bk. 11, p. 50. See M not
uber. ii. 108, and Maurer's Idcmd, p. 451. '

G 2

84 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

hath many avenues : the path of pleasure is opened to some
[/O] by grace, to others by bravery of soul, and to some by skill
in accomplishments. Courtesy brings to some stores of Love,
while most are commended by brightness of beauty. Nor
do the brave inflict a shallower wound on maidens than the
comely.

Now it befell that Balder the son of Odin was troubled
at the sight of Nanna bathing, and was seized with boundless
love. He was kindled by her fair and lustrous body, and his
heart was set on fire by her manifest beauty ; for nothing
exciteth passion like comeliness. Therefore he resolved to
slay with the sword Hother, who, he feared, was likeliest to
baulk his wishes ; so that his love, which brooked no post-
ponement, might not be delayed in the enjoyment of its desire
by any obstacle.

About this time Hother chanced, while hunting, to be led
astray by a mist, and he came on a certain lodge in which were
wood-maidens ; and when they greeted him by his own name,
he asked who they were. They declared that it was their
guidance and government that mainly determined the fortunes
of war. For they often invisibly took part in battles, and
by their secret assistance won for their friends the coveted
victories. They averred, indeed, that they could win triumphs
and inflict defeats as they would ; and further told him how
Balder had seen his foster-sister Nanna while she bathed, and
been kindled with passion for her ; but counselled Hother not
to attack him in war, worthy as he was of his deadliest hate,
for they declared that Balder was a demigod, sprung secretly
from celestial seed. When Hother had heard this, the place
melted away and left him shelterless, and he found himself
standing in the open and out in the midst of the fields, with-
out a vestige of shade. Most of all he marvelled at the swift
flight of the maidens, the shifting of the place, and the delusive
semblance of the building. For he knew not that all that
had passed around him had been a mere mockery and an
unreal trick of the arts of magic.

Returning thence, lie related to Gewar the mystification that

BOOK THREE. 85

had followed on his straying, and straightway asked him for
his daughter. Gewar answered that he would most gladly
favour him, but that he feared, if he rejected Balder, he would
incur his wrath ; for Balder, he said, had proffered him a like
request. For he said that the sacred strength of Balder's body
was proof even against steel ; adding, however, that he knew
of a sword which could deal him his death, which was fastened
up in the closest bonds ; this was in the keeping of Miming,
the Satyr of the woods, who also had a bracelet of a secret
and marvellous virtue, that used to increase the wealth of the
owner. Moreover, the way to these regions was impassable
and filled with obstacles, and therefore hard for mortal men [71]
to travel. For the greater part of the road was perpetually
beset with extraordinary cold. So he advised him to harness
a car with reindeer, by means of whose great speed he could
cross the hard-frozen ridges. And when he had got to the
place, he should set up his tent away from the sun in such
wise that it should catch the shadow of the cave where
Miming was wont to be ; while he should not in return
cast a shade upon Miming, so that no unaccustomed darkness
might be thrown and prevent the Satyr from going out.
Thus both the bracelet and the sword would be ready to
his hand, one being attended by fortune in wealth and the
other by fortune in war, and each of them thus bringing a
great prize to the owner. Thus much said Gewar ; and
Hother was not slow to carry out his instructions. Planting
his tent in the manner aforesaid, he passed the nights in
anxieties and the days in hunting. But through either season
he remained very wakeful and sleepless, allotting the divisions
of night and day so as to devote the one to reflection on events,
and to spend the other in providing food for his body. Once
as he watched all night, his spirit was drooping and dazed
with anxiety, when the Satyr cast a shadow on his tent.
Aiming a spear at him, he brought him down with the blow,
stopped him, and bound him, while he could not make his
escape. Then in the most dreadful words he threatened him
with the worst, and demanded the sword and bracelets. The

86 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Satyr was not slow to tender him the ransom of his life for
which he was asked. So surely do all prize life beyond
wealth ; for nothing is ever cherished more among mortals
than the breath of their own life. Hother, exulting in the
treasure he had gained, went home enriched with trophies
which, though few, were noble.

When Gelder, the King of Saxony, heard that Hother had
gained these things, he kept constantly urging his soldiers to
go and carry off such glorious booty ; and the warriors
speedily equipped a fleet in obedience to their king. Gewar,
being very learned in divining and an expert in the know-
ledge of omens, foresaw this ; and summoning Hother, told
him, when Gelder should join battle with him, to receive his
spears with patience, and not let his own fly until he saw the
enemy's missiles exhausted : and further to bring up the curved
scythes wherewith the vessels could be rent and the helmets
and shields plucked from the soldiers. Hother followed his
advice and found its result fortunate. For he bade his men,
when Gelder began to charge, to stand their ground and
defend their bodies with their shields, affirming that the
victory in that battle must be won by patience. But the
[72] enemy nowhere kept back their missiles, spending them all
in their extreme eagerness to fight ; and the more patiently
they found Hother bear himself in his reception of their
spears and lances, the more furiously they began to hurl
them. Some of these stuck in the shields and some in the ships,
and few were the wounds they inflicted ; many of them were
seen to be shaken off idly and to do no hurt. For the soldiers
of Hother performed the bidding of their king, and kept oft'
the attack of the spears by a penthouse of interlocked shields1 ;
while not a few of the spears smote lightly on the bosses and
fell into the waves. When Gelder was emptied of all his
store, and saw the enemy picking it up, and swiftly hurling
it back at him, he covered the summit of the mast with a
crimson shield, as a signal of peace, and surrendered to save

1 Penthouse of interlocked shields] conserta dypeorum ttstudine. See
Icel, Diet, s. v. skialdborg.

BOOK THREE. 87

his life. Hother received him with the friendliest face and
the kindliest words, and conquered him as much by his gentle-
ness as he had by his skill.

At this time Helgi, King of Halogaland, was sending fre-
quent embassies to press his suit for Thora, daughter of Cuse,
sovereign of the Finns and Perms. Thus is weakness ever
known by its wanting help from others. For while all other
young men of that time used to sue in marriage with their
own lips, this man was afflicted with so faulty an utterance
that he was ashamed to be heard not only by strangers, but
by those of his own house. So much doth calamity shun
all witnesses ; for natural defects are the more vexing the
more manifest they are. Cuse despised his embassy, answering
that that man did not deserve a wife who trusted too little to
his own manhood, and borrowed by entreaty the aid of others
in order to gain his suit. When Helgi heard this, be besought
Hother, whom he knew to be an accomplished pleader, to
favour his desires, promising that he would promptly perform
whatsoever he should command him. The earnest entreaties
of the youth prevailed on Hother, and he went to Norway
with an armed fleet, intending to achieve by arms the end
which he could not by words. And when he had pleaded for
Helgi with the most dulcet eloquence, Cuse rejoined that his
daughter's wish must be consulted, in order that no paternal
strictness might forestall anything against her will. He called
her in and asked her whether she felt a liking for her wooer;
and when she assented he promised Helgi her hand. In this
way Hother, by the sweet sounds of his fluent and well-
turned oratory, opened the ears of Cuse, which were before
deaf to the suit he urged.

While this was passing in Halogaland, Balder entered the
country of Gewar armed, in order to sue for Nanna. Gewar
bade him learn Nanna's own mind ; so he approached the [_72>]
maiden with the most choice and cajoling words ; and when
he could win no hearing for his prayers, he persisted in
asking the reason of his refusal. She replied, that a god
could not wed with a mortal, because the vast difference of

88 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

their natures prevented any bond of intercourse. Also the
gods sometimes used to break their pledges ; and the bond
contracted between unequals was apt to snap suddenly. There
was no firm tie between those of differing estate ; for beside
the great the fortunes of the lowly were always dimmed.
Also lack and plenty dwelt in diverse tents, nor was there
any fast bond of intercourse between gorgeous wealth and
obscure poverty. In fine, the things of earth would not mate
with those of heaven, being sundered by a great original gulf
through a difference in nature; inasmuch as mortal man was
infinitely far from the glory of the divine majesty. With this
shuffling answer she eluded the suit of Balder, and shrewdly
wove excuses to refuse his hand.

When Hother heard this from Gewar, he complained long-
to Helgi of Balder 's insolence. Both were in doubt as to
what should be done, and beat their brains over divers plans ;
for converse with a friend in the day of trouble, though it
removeth not the peril, yet maketh the heart less sick. Amid
all the desires of their souls the passion of valour prevailed,
and a naval battle was fought with Balder. One would have
thought it a contest of men against ffods, for Odin and Thor
and the holy array of the gods fought for Balder. There one
could have beheld a war in which divine and human might
were mingled. But Hother was clad in his steel-defying tunic,
and charged the closest bands of the gods, assailing them as
vehemently as a son of earth could assail the powers above.
However, Thor was swinging his club with marvellous might,
and shattered all interposing shields, calling as loudly on his
foes to attack him as upon his friends to back him up. No kind
of armour withstood his onset, no man could receive his stroke
and live. Whatsoever his blow fended off it crushed ; neither
shield nor helm endured the weight of its dint ; no greatness
of body or of strength could serve. Thus the victory would
have passed to the gods, but that Hother, though his line had
already fallen back, darted up, hewed off the club at the haft,
and made it useless. And the gods, when they had lost this
weapon, fled incontinently. But that antiquity vouches for

BOOK THREE.

it, it were quite against common belief to think that men pre-
vailed against gods. (We call them gods in a supposititious
rather than in a real sense ; for to such we give the title of [74]
deity by the custom of nations, not because of their nature.)

As for Balder, he took to flight and was saved. The con-
querors either hacked his ships with their swords or sunk them
in the sea ; not content to have defeated gods, they pursued
the wrecks of the fleet with such rage, as if j they would destroy
them to satiate their deadly passion* for t war. Thus, doth
prosperity commonly whet the edge of licence. The haven,
recalling by its name Balder's flight1, bears witness to the war.
Gelder, the King of Saxony, who met his end in the same
war, was set by Hother upon the corpses of his oarsmen, and
then laid on a pyre built of vessels, and magnificently honoured
in his funeral by Hother, who not only put his ashes in a noble
barrow, treating them as the remains of a king, but also graced
them with most reverent obsequies. Then, to prevent any
more troublesome business delaying his hopes of marriage,
he went back to Gewar and enjoyed the coveted embraces
of Nanna. Next, having treated Helgi and Thora very
generously, he brought his new queen back to Sweden, being
as much honoured by all for his victory as Balder was
laughed at for his flight.

At this time the nobles of the Swedes repaired to Denmark
to pay their tribute ; but Hother, who had been honoured as
a king by his countrymen for the splendid deeds of his father,
experienced what a lying pander Fortune is. For he was con-
quered in the field by Balder, whom a little before he had
crushed, and was forced to flee to Gewar, thus losing while
a king that victory which he had won as a common man.
The conquering Balder, in order to slake his soldiers, who
were parched with thirst, with the blessing of a timely draught,
pierced the earth deep and disclosed a fresh spring. The

1 The haven recalling by its name Balder's flight] This place has not
been certainly identified, according to M., who thinks that it may have
been called either Balder's haven or Balder's refuge (Balderslee), a name
mentioned in tradition for a certain village in Sleswig.

90 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

thirsty ranks made with gaping lips for the water that gushed
forth everywhere. The traces of these springs, eternised by
the name,1 are thought not quite to have dried up yet, though
they have ceased to well so freely as of old. Balder was
continually harassed by night with phantoms feigning the
likeness of Nanna, and fell into such ill health that he
could not so much as walk, and began the habit of going his
journeys in a two-horse car or a four-wheeled carriage. So
great was the love that had steeped his heart and now
had brought him down almost to the extremity of decline. For
he thought that his victory had brought him nothing if
Nanna was not his prize. Also Frey, the regent2 of the gods,
took his abode not far from Upsala, where he exchanged
[75] for a ghastly and infamous sin-offering the old custom of
prayer by sacrifice, which had been used by so many ages
and generations. For he paid to the gods abominable offer-
ings, by beginning to slaughter human victims.

Meantime Hother3 learned that Denmark lacked leaders, and
that Hiartuar had swiftly expiated the death of Rolf; and
he used to say that chance had thrown into his hands that to
which he could scarce have aspired. For first, Rolf, whom
he ought to have killed, since he remembered that Rolfs
father had slain his own, had been punished by the help of
another ; and also, by the unexpected bounty of events, a
chance had been opened to him of winning Denmark. In
truth, if the pedigree of his forefathers were rightly traced,
that realm was his by ancestral right !4 Thereupon he took
possession, with a very great fleet, of Isefjord, a haven of
Zealand, so as to make use of his impending fortune. There the
people of the Danes met him and appointed him king ; and
a little after, on hearing of the death of his brother Athisl,
whom he had bidden rule the Swedes, he joined the Swedish

1 Eternised by the name] Baldcrsbrynd, Balder's spring.

2 Regent] mtrapa.

3 Meantime Hother] Saxo now goes back to the history of Denmark.
All the events hitherto related in Bk. in, after the first paragraph, are a
digression in retrospect.

1 Namely, through his grandmother Swanhvvid, wife of Ragnar and
daughter of Hadding. See above, p. 54.

BOOK THREE. 91

empire to that of Denmark. But Athisl was cut off by an
ignominious death. For whilst, in great jubilation of spirit,
he was honouring the funeral rites of Rolf with a feast, he
drank too greedily, and paid for his filthy intemperance by
his sudden end. And so, while he was celebrating the death
of another with immoderate joviality, he forced on his own
apace.

While Hother was in Sweden, Balder also came to Zealand
with a fleet ; and since he was thought to be rich in arms and
of singular majesty, the Danes accorded him with the readiest
of voices whatever he asked concerning the supreme power.
With such wavering judgment was the opinion of our fore-
fathers divided. Hother returned from Sweden and attacked
him. They both coveted sway, and the keenest contest
for the sovereignty began between them ; but it was cut
short by the flight of Hother. He retired to Jutland, and
caused to be named after him the village in which he was
wont to stay.1 Here he passed the winter season, and then
went back to Sweden alone and unattended. There he sum-
moned the grandees, and told them that he was weary of the
light of life because of the misfortunes wherewith Balder had
twice victoriously stricken him. Then he took farewell of all,
and went by a circuitous path to a place that was hard of access,
traversing forests uncivilised. For it oft happens that those
upon whom has come some inconsolable trouble of spirit, seek,
as though it were a medicine to drive away their sadness, far
and sequestered retreats, and cannot bear the greatness of their [76]
grief amid the fellowship of men : so dear, for the most part,
is solitude to sickness. For filthiness and grime are chiefly
pleasing to those who have been stricken with ailments of the
soul. Now he had been wont to give out from the top of a
high hill decrees to the people when they came to consult him ;
and hence when they came they upbraided the sloth of the

1 The village in which he was wont to stay] According to M., the
author of the tale probably thought of the town in Jutland called Horsens,
in Latin Hoihersnesia. This name, he adds, might easily give rise to the
legend, but is likely to be a corruption of Jfrossanes, " horse-ness."

92 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

king for hiding himself, and his absence was railed at by all
with the bitterest complaints.

But Hother, when he had wandered through remotest by-
ways and crossed an uninhabited forest, chanced to come upon
a cave where dwelt some maidens whom he knew not ; but
they proved to be the same who had once given him the
invulnerable coat. Asked by them wherefore he had come
thither, he related the disastrous issue of the war. So he
began to bewail the ill luck of his failures and his dismal
misfortunes, condemning their breach of faith, and lamenting
that it had not turned out for him as they had promised him.
But the maidens said, that though he had seldom come off vic-
torious, he had nevertheless inflicted as much defeat on the
enemy as they on him, and had dealt as much carnage as he
had shared in. Moreover, the favour of victory would be
speedily his, if he could first lay hands upon a food of
extraordinary delightsomeness which had been devised to
increase the strength of Balder. For nothing would be diffi-
cult if he could only get hold of the dainty which was meant
to enhance the vigour of his foe.

Hard as it sounded for earthborn endeavours to make armed
assault upon the gods, the words of the maidens inspired
Hother's mind with instant confidence to fight with Balder.
Also some of his own people said that he could not safely
contend with those above ; but all regard for their majesty
was expelled by the boundless fire of his spirit. For in
brave souls vehemence is not always sapped by reason, nor
doth counsel defeat rashness. Or perchance it was that Hother
remembered how the might of the lordliest oft proveth unstable,
and how a little clod can batter down great chariots.

On the other side, Balder mustered the Danes to arms and
met Hother in the field. Both sides made a great slaughter ;
the carnage of the opposing parties was nearly equal, and
night stayed the battle. About the third watch, Hother, un-
known to any man, went out to spy upon the enemy, anxiety
about the impending peril having banished sleep. Thus strong
excitement favours not bodily rest, and inward disquiet suffers

BOOK THREE. 93

not outward repose. So when he came to the camp of the [77]
enemy he heard that three maidens had gone out carrying
the secret feast of Balder. He ran after them (for their foot-
steps in the dew betrayed their flight), and at last entered
their accustomed dwelling. When they asked him who he
was, he said, a lutanist, nor did the trial belie his profession.
For when the lyre was offered him, he tuned its strings,
ordered and governed the chords with his quill, and with
ready modulation poured forth a melody pleasant to the ear.
Now they had three snakes, of whose venom they were wont
to mix a strengthening compound for the food of Balder, and
even now a flood of slaver was dripping on the food from the
open mouths of the serpents. And some of the maidens
would, for kindness' sake, have given Hother a share of the
dish, had not the eldest of the three forbidden them, de-
claring that Balder would be cheated if they increased the
bodily powers of his enemy. He had said, not that he was
Hother, but that he was one of his company. Now the same
nymphs, in their gracious kindliness, bestowed on him a belt
of perfect sheen and a girdle which assured victory.

Retracing the path by which he had come, he went back on
the same road, and meeting Balder plunged his sword into
his side, and laid him low half-dead. When the news was
told to the soldiers, a cheery shout of triumph rose from all
the camp of Hother, while the Danes held a public mourning
for the fate of Balder. He, feeling no doubt of his impending
death, and stung by the anguish of his wound, renewed the
battle on the morrow ; and, when it raged hotly, bade that
he should be borne on a litter into the fray, that he might
not seem to die ignobly within his tent. On the night follow-
ing, Proserpine1 was seen to stand by him in a vision, and to
promise that on the morrow he should have her embrace. The
boding of the dream was not idle ; for when three days had
passed, Balder perished from the excessive torture of his
wound ; and his body was given a royal funeral, the army
causing it to be buried in a barrow which they had made.

1 Proserpine] i.e., Hela. We have, as often, kept the Latin name.

04 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Certain men of our day, chief among whom was Harald,1
since the story of the ancient burial-place still survived, made
a raid on it by night in the hope of finding money, but abandoned
their attempt in sudden panic. For the hill split, and from its
crest a sudden and mighty torrent of loud-roaring waters
seemed to burst ; so that its flying mass, shooting furiously
down, poured over the fields below, and enveloped whatsoever
[78] it struck upon. And at its onset the del vers were dislodged,
flung down their mattocks, and fled divers ways ; thinking
that if they strove any longer to carry through their
enterprise they would be caught in the eddies of the water
that was rushing down. Thus the guardian gods of that
spot smote fear suddenly into the minds of the youths,
taking them away from covetousness, and turning them to
see to their safety ; teaching them to neglect their greedy
purpose and be careful of their own lives. Now it is certain
that this apparent flood was not real but phantasmal ; not
born in the bowels of the earth (since Nature suffereth not
liquid springs to gush forth in a dry place), but produced by
some magic agency. All men afterwards to whom the story
of that breaking in had come down, left this hill undisturbed.
Wherefore it has never been made sure whether it really
contains any wealth ; for the dread of peril has daunted any-
one since Harald from probing its dark foundations.

But Odin, though he was accounted the chief of the gods,
began to inquire of the prophets and diviners concerning the
way to accomplish vengeance for his son, as well as all others
whom he had heard were skilled in the most recondite arts of
soothsaying. For godhead that is incomplete is oft in want of
the help of man. Rostioph [Hrossthiolf], the Finn, foretold
to him that another son must be born to him by Rinda
[Wrinda], daughter of the King of the Ruthenians ; this son
was destined to exact punishment for the slaying of his brother.

1 Harald] M. conjectures that this was a certain Harald, the bastard
son of Erik the Good, and a wild and dissolute man, who died in 1135,
not long before the probable date of Saxo's birth.

BOOK THREE. 95

For the gods had appointed to the brother that was yet to be
born the task of avenging his kinsman. Odin, when he heard
this, muffled his face with a cap, that his garb might not betray
him, and entered the service of the said king as a soldier;
and being made by him captain of the soldiers, and given an
army, won a splendid victory over the enemy. And for his
stout achievement in this battle the king admitted him into
the chief place in his friendship, distinguishing him as
generously with gifts as with honours. A very little while
afterwards Odin routed the enemy single-handed, and returned,
at once the messenger and the doer of the deed. All
marvelled that the strength of one man could deal such
slaughter upon a countless host. Trusting in these services, he
privily let the king into the secret of his love, and was re-
freshed by his most gracious favour ; but when he sought
a kiss from the maiden, he received a cuff. But he was not
driven from his purpose either by anger at the slight or by
the odiousness of the insult.

Next year, loth to quit ignobly the quest he had taken up
so eagerly, he put on the dress of a foreigner and went back
to dwell with the king. It was hard for those who met him
to recognise him ; for his assumed filth obliterated his true
features, and new grime hid his ancient aspect. He said that [79]
his name was Roster [Hrosstheow], and that he was skilled in
smithcraft. And his handiwork did honour to his professions :
for he portrayed in bronze many and many a shape most
beautifully, so that he received a great mass of gold from
the king, and was ordered to hammer out the ornaments of
the matrons. So, after having wrought many adornments
for women's wearing, he at last offered to the maiden a
bracelet which he had polished more laboriously than the
rest, and several rings which were adorned with equal care.
But no services could assuage the wrath of Rinda ; when he
was fain to kiss her she cuffed him ; for gifts offered by one
we hate are unacceptable, while those tendered by a friend
are far more grateful : so much doth the value of the offer-

96 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

ing oft turn on the offerer. For this stubborn-hearted maiden
never doubted that the crafty old man was feigning generosity
in order to seize an opening to work his lust. His temper,
moreover, was keen and indomitable ; for she knew that his
homage covered guile, and that under the devotion of his
gifts there lay a desire for crime. Her father fell to upbraid-
ing her heavily for refusing the match ; but she loathed to
wed an old man, and the plea of her tender years lent her
some support in her scorning of his hand ; for she said that
a young girl ought not to marry prematurely.

But Odin, who had found that nothing served the wishes
of lovers more than tough persistency, though he was stung
with the shame of his double rebuff, nevertheless, effacing the
form he had worn before, went to the king for the third time,
professing the completest skill in soldiership. He was led to
take this pains not only by pleasure but by the wish to wipe
out his disgrace. For of old those who were skilled in magic
gained this power of instantly changing their aspect and
exhibiting the most different shapes. Indeed, they were clever
at imitating any age, not only in its natural bodily appearance,
but also in its stature ; and so the old man, in order to exhibit
his calling agreeably, used to ride proudly up and down among
the briskest of them. But not even such a tribute could move
the rigour of the maiden ; for it is hard for the mind to come
back to a genuine liking for one against whom it has once
borne heavy dislike. When he tried to kiss her at his de-
parture, she repulsed him so that he tottered and smote his
chin upon the ground. Straightway he touched her with a
piece of bark whereon spells were written, and made her like
unto one in frenzy : which was a gentle revenge to take for
[80] all the insults he had received.

But still he did not falter in the fulfilment of his purpose,
for trust in his divine majesty buoyed him up with confidence ;
so, assuming the garb of a maiden, this indefatigable journeyer
repaired for the fourth time to the king, and, on being received
by him, showed himself assiduous and even forward. Most
people believed him to be a woman, as he was dressed almost in

BOOK THREE. 97

female attire. Also he declared that his name was Wecha, and
his calling that of a physician : and this assertion he confirmed
by the readiest services. At last he was taken into the house-
hold of the queen, and played the part of a waiting-woman
to the princess, and even used to wash the soil off her feet
at eventide; and as he was applying the water he was suffered
to touch her calves and the upper part of the thighs. But
fortune goes with mutable steps, and thus chance put into his
hand what his address had never won. For it happened
that the girl fell sick, and looked around for a cure ;
and she summoned to protect her health those very hands
which aforetime she had rejected, and appealed for preserva-
tion to him whom she had ever held in loathing. He examined
narrowly all the symptoms of the trouble, and declared that,
in order to check the disease as soon as possible, it was needful
to use a certain drugged draught ; but that it was so bitterly
compounded, that the girl could never endure so violent a cure
unless she submitted to be bound ; since the stuff of the
malady must be ejected from the very innermost tissues.
When her father heard this he did not hesitate to bind his
daughter ; and, laying her on the bed, he bade her endure
patiently all the applications of the doctor. For the king
was tricked by the sight of the female dress, which the old
man was using to disguise his persistent guile ; and thus the
seeming remedy became an opportunity of outrage. For the
physician seized the chance of love, and, abandoning his
business of healing, sped to the work, not of expelling the
fever, but of working his lust ; making use of the sickness of
the princess, whom in sound health he had found adverse to
him. It will not be wearisome if I subjoin another version
of this affair. For there are certain who say that the king,
when he saw the physician groaning with love, but despite
all his expense of mind and body accomplishing nothing,
did not wish to rob of his due reward one who had so well
earned it, and allowed him to lie privily with his daughter.
So doth the wickedness of the father sometimes assail the
child, when vehement passion perverts natural mildness. But

98 SAXO GKAMMATICUS.

his fault was soon followed by a remorse that was full of shame,
when his daughter bore a child.
L^1] But the gods, whose chief seat was then at Byzantium,1
seeing that Odin had tarnished the fair name of godhead by
divers injuries to its majesty, thought that he ought to be
removed from their society. And they had him not only
ousted from the headship, but outlawed and stripped of all
worship and honour at home ; thinking it better that the
power of their infamous president should be overthrown
than that public religion should be profaned ; and fearing
that they might themselves be involved in the sin of another,
and though guiltless be punished for the crime of the guilty.
For they saw that, now the derision of their great god was
brought to light, those whom they had lured to proffer them
divine honours were exchanging obeisance for scorn and
worship for shame ; that holy rites were being accounted
sacrilege, and fixed and regular ceremonies deemed so much
childish raving. Fear was in their souls, death before their
eyes, and one would have supposed that the fault of one
was visited upon the heads of all. So, not wishing Odin to
drive public religion into exile, they exiled him and put one
Oiler [Wuldor?] in his place, to bear the symbols not only of
royalty but also of godhead, as though it had been as easy a
task to create a god as a king. And though they had appointed
him priest for form's sake, they endowed him actually with
full distinction, that he might be seen to be the lawful heir to
the dignity, and no mere deputy doing another's work. Also,
to omit no circumstance of greatness, they further gave him the
name of Odin, trying by the prestige of that title to be rid of
the obloquy of innovation. For nearly ten years Oiler held the

1 Byzantium] Cp. " Handwan, King of the Hellespont", in Bk. i, p. 30.
Saxo calls Asgard Byzantium, however, for a different reason. In his
rationalising of the heathen legends, he is forced to believe that Asgard
represented some actual city which had been deified, and fixes accordingly
upon the ancient and famous " Myklegard", Byzantium, to which (see
ref. above) he thought there was a route by land from Scandinavia. See
Miiller, not. ub. in vol. ii ; also his Critiak Uudersbydse, etc., p. 40.

BOOK THREE. 99

presidency of the divine senate ; but at last the gods pitied
the horrible exile of Odin, and thought that he had now
been punished heavily enough ; so he exchanged his foul
and unsightly estate for his ancient splendour. For the
lapse of time had now wiped out the brand of his earlier
disgrace. Yet some were to be found who judged that he
was not worthy to approach and resume his rank, because by
his stage-tricks and his assumption of a woman's work he had
brought the foulest scandal on the name of the gods. Some
declare that he bought back the fortune of his lost divinity
with money ; flattering some of the gods and mollifying
some with bribes ; and that at the cost of a vast sum he
contrived to get back to the distinctions which he had long
quitted. If you ask how much he paid for them, inquire
of those who have found out what is the price of a godhead.
I own that to me it is but little worth.

Thus Oiler was driven out from Byzantium by Odin and
retired into Sweden. Here, while he was trying, as if in a
new world, to repair the records of his glory, the Danes slew
him. The story goes that he was such a cunning wizard that
he used a certain bone, which he had marked with awful
spells, wherewith to cross the seas, instead of a vessel ; and
that by this bone he passed over the waters that barred his [82]
way as quickly as by rowing.

But Odin, now that he had regained the emblems of god-
head, shone over all parts of the world with such a lustre of
renown, that all nations welcomed him as though he were
light restored to the universe ; nor was any spot to be found
on the earth which did not homage to his might. Then
finding that Boe, his son by Rinda, was enamoured of the
hardships of war, he called him, and bade him bear in mind
the slaying of his brother : saying that it would be better for
him to take vengeance on the murderers of Balder than to
overcome the innocent in battle ; for warfare was most fitting
and wholesome when a holy occasion for waging it was fur-
nished by a righteous opening for vengeance.

News came meantime that Gewar had been slain by the

100 SAXO GKAMMAT1CUS.

guile of his own satrap [jarl], Gunne. Hother determined to
visit his murder with the strongest and sharpest revenge. So
he surprised Gunne, cast him on a blazing pyre, and burnt
him ; for Gunne had himself treacherously waylaid Gewar,
and burnt him alive in the night. This was his offering of
vengeance to the shade of his foster-father ; and then he
made his sons, Herlek and Gerit, rulers of Norway.

Then he summoned the elders to assembly, and told them
that he would perish in the war wherein he was bound to
meet Boe, and said that he knew this by no doubtful guess-
work, but by sure prophecies of seers. So he besought them
to make his son Rorik king, so that the judgment of wicked
men should not transfer the royalty to strange and unknown
houses ; averring that he would reap more joy from the
succession of his son than bitterness from his own impending
death. This request was speedily granted. Then he met
Boe in battle and was killed ; but small joy the victory gave
Boe. Indeed, he left the battle so sore stricken, that he was
lifted on his shield and carried home by his foot-soldiers sup-
porting him in turn, to perish next day of the pain of his
wounds. The Ruthenian army gave his body a gorgeous
funeral and buried it in a splendid ho we, which it piled in
his name, to save the record of so mighty a warrior from
slipping out of the recollection of after ages.

So the Kurlanders and the Swedes, as though the death of
[83] Hother set them free from the burden of their subjection,
resolved to attack Denmark, to which they were accustomed
to do homage with a yearly tax. By this the Slavs also were
emboldened to revolt, and a number of others were turned
from subjects into foes. Rorik, in order to check this wrong-
doing, summoned his country to arms, recounted the deeds of
his forefathers, and urged them in a passionate harangue unto
valorous deeds. But the barbarians, loth to engage without a
general, and seeing that they needed a head, appointed a king-
over them ; and, displaying all the rest of their military force,
hid two companies of armed men in a dark spot. But Rorik
saw thc^M^i-and Uw»«^ving that his fleet was wedged in a

BOOK THREE. 101

certain narrow creek among the shoal water, took it out from
the sands where it was lying, and brought it forth to sea ; lest
it should strike on the oozy swamps, and be attacked by the
foe on different sides. Also he resolved that his men should go
into hiding during the day, where they could stay and suddenly
fall on the invaders of his ships. He said that perchance the
guile might in the end recoil on the heads of its devisers.
And in fact the barbarians who had been appointed to the
ambuscade knew nothing of the wariness of the Danes, and
sallying against them rashly, were all destroyed. The remain-
ing force of the Slavs, knowing nothing of the slaughter of
their friends, hung in doubt wondering over the reason of
Rorik's tarrying. And after waiting long for him as the
months wearily rolled by, and finding delay every day more
burdensome, they at last thought they should attack him with
their fleet.

Now among them there was a man of remarkable stature,
a wizard by calling. He, when he beheld the squadrons
of the Danes, said: "Suffer a private combat to forestall
a public slaughter, so that the danger of many may be
bought off at the cost of a few. And if any of you shall
take heart to fight it out with me, I will not flinch from
these terms of conflict. But first of all I demand that you
accept the terms I prescribe, the form whereof I have devised
as follows : If I conquer, let freedom be granted us from
taxes ; if I am conquered, let the tribute be paid you as of
old. For to-day I will either free my country from the yoke
of slavery by my victory or bind her under it by my defeat.
Accept me as the surety and the pledge for either issue."
One of the Danes, whose spirit was stouter than his strength,
heard this, and proceeded to ask Rorik, what would be the
reward for the man who met the challenger in combat ?
Rorik chanced to have six bracelets, which were so inter-
twined that they could not be parted from one another, the
chain of knots being inextricably laced ; and he promised
them as a reward for the man who would venture on the
combat. But the youth, who doubted his fortune, said : [84]

102 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

" Rorik, if I prove successful, let thy generosity award
the prize of the conqueror, do thou decide and allot the
palm ; but if my enterprise go little to my liking, what
prize canst thou owe to the beaten, who will be wrapped
either in cruel death or in bitter shame ? These things com-
monly go with feebleness, these are the wages of the defeated,
for whom naught remains but utter infamy. What guerdon
must be paid, what thanks offered, to him who lacks the
prize of courage ? Who has ever garlanded with ivy the
weakling in War, or decked him with a conqueror's wage?
Valour wins the prize, not sloth, and failure lacks renown.
For one is followed by triumph and honour, the other by an
unsightly life or by a stagnant end. I, who know not which
way the issue of this duel inclines, dare not boldly antici-
pate that as a reward, of which I know not whether it be
rightly mine. For one whose victory is doubtful may not
seize the assured reward of the victor. I forbear, while
I am not sure of the day, to claim firmly the title to the
wreath. I refuse the gain, which may be the wages of
my death as much as of my life. It is folly to lay hands on
the fruit before it is ripe, and to be fain to pluck that
which one is not yet sure is one's due. This hand shall
win me the prize, or death." Having thus spoken, he smote
the barbarian with his sword ; but his fortune was tardier
than his spirit ; for the other smote him back, and he fell
dead under the force of the first blow. Thus he was a
sorry sight unto the Danes, but the Slavs granted their
triumphant comrade a great procession, and received him
with splendid dances. On the morrow the same man, whether
he was elated with the good fortune of his late victory,
or was fired with the wish to win another, came close to the
enemy, and set to girding at them in the words of his
former challenge. For, supposing that he had laid low the
bravest of the Danes, he did not think that any of them
would have any heart left to fight further with him upon
his challenge. Also, trusting that, now one champion had
fallen, he had shattered the strength of the whole army, he

BOOK THREE. 103

thought that naught would be hard to achieve upon which
his later endeavours were bent. For nothing pampers arro-
gance more than success, or prompts to pride more surely than
prosperity.

So Rorik was vexed that the general courage should be
sapped by the impudence of one man ; and that the Danes,
with their roll of victories, should be met presumptuously
by those whom they had beaten of old, nay, should be
ignominiously spurned ; further, that in all that host not one
man should be found so quick of spirit or so vigorous of [°5j
arm, that he longed to sacrifice his life for his country.
It was the high-hearted Ubbe who first wiped off this in-
famous reproach upon the hesitating Danes. For he was of
great bodily strength and powerful in incantations. He
also purposely asked the prize of the combat, and the king
promised him the bracelets. Then said he : "How can I trust
the promise when thou keepest the pledge in thine own hands,
and dost not deposit the gift in the charge of another ? Let
there be some one to whom thou canst entrust the pledge,
that thou mayst not be able to take thy promise back. For
the courage of the champion is kindled by the irrevocable
certainty of the prize." Of course it was plain that he had
said this in jest ; sheer courage had armed him to repel the
insult to his country. But Rorik thought he was tempted
by avarice, and was loth to seem as if, contrary to royal
fashion, he meant to take back the gift or revoke his
promise ; so, being stationed on his vessel, he resolved to shake
off the bracelets, and with a mighty swing send them to the
asker. But his attempt was baulked by the width of the gap
between them ; for the bracelets fell short of the intended
spot, the impulse being too faint and slack, and were reft
away by the waters. For this the nickname of Slyngebond1
clung to Rorik. But this event testified much to the valour
of Ubbe. For the loss of his drowned prize never turned his
mind from his bold venture ; he would not seem to let his
courage be tempted by the wages of covetousness. So he
1 Slyngebond] Swing-bracelet.

104 SAXO GKAMMATICUS.

eagerly went to fight, showing that he was a seeker of honour
and not the slave of lucre, and that he set bravery before
lust of pelf; and intent to prove that his confidence was
based not on hire, but on his own great soul. Not a moment
is lost ; a ring is made ; the course is thronged with soldiers :
the champions engage ; a din arises ; the crowd of onlookers
shouts in discord, each backing his own. And so the valour
of the champions blazes to white-heat ; falling dead under the
wounds dealt by one another, they end together the combat
and their lives. I think that it was a provision of fortune
that neither of them should reap joy and honour by the
other's death. This event won back to Rorik the hearts of
the insurgents and regained him the tribute.

At this time Horwendil and Feng, whose father Gerwendil
had been governor of the Jutes, were appointed in his place
by Rorik to defend Jutland.1 But Horwendil held the
monarchy for three years, and then, to win the height of
glory, devoted himself to roving. Then Koll, King of Norway,
in rivalry of his great deeds and renown, deemed it would
[86] be a handsome deed if by his greater strength in arms
he could bedim the far-famed glory of the rover ; and,
cruising about the sea, he watched for Horwendil's fleet and
came up with it. There was an island lying in the middle
of the sea, which each of the rovers, bringing his ships up on
either side, was holding. The captains were tempted by
the pleasant look of the beach, and the comeliness of the
shores led them to look through the interior of the spring-
tide woods, to go through the glades, and roam over the
sequestered forests. It was here that the advance of Koll
and Horwendil brought them face to face without any
witness. Then Horwendil endeavoured to address the kino-
first, asking him in what way it was his pleasure to
fight, and declaring that one best which needed the courage
of as few as possible. For, said he, the duel was the surest
of all modes of combat for winning the meed of bravery,

1 Appointed in his place to defend Jutland] See note on this, Bk. i\,
p. 128.

BOOK THREE. 105

because it relied only upon native courage, and excluded all
help from the hand of another. Koll marvelled at so
brave a judgment in a youth, and said : " Since thou hast
granted me the choice of battle, I think it is best to employ
that kind which needs only the endeavours of two, and
is free from all the tumult. Certainly it is more ven-
turesome, and allows of a speedier award of the victory.
This thought we share, in this opinion we agree of our
own accord. But since the issue remains doubtful, we must
pay some regard to gentle dealing, and must not give way so
far to our inclinations as to leave the last offices undone.
Hatred is in our hearts ; yet let piety be there also, which in
its due time may take the place of rigour. For the rights of
nature reconcile us, though we are parted by differences of
purpose ; they link us together, howsoever rancour estrange
our spirits. Let us, therefore, have this pious stipulation,
that the conqueror shall give funeral rites to the conquered.
For all allow that these are the last duties of human kind,
from which no righteous man shrinks. Let each army lay
aside its sternness and perform this function in harmony.
Let jealousy depart at death, let the feud be buried in the
tomb. Let us not show such an example of cruelty as to
persecute one another's dust, though hatred has come between
us in our lives. It will be a boast for the victor if he
has borne his beaten foe in a lordly funeral. For the man
who pays the rightful dues over his dead enemy wins the
goodwill of the survivor ; and whoso devotes gentle dealing
to him who is no more, conquers the living by his kindness.
Also there is another disaster, not less lamentable, which some-
times befalls the living — the loss of some part of their body ;
and I think that succour is due to this just as much as to the
worst hap that may befall. For often those who fight keep
their lives safe, but suffer maiming ; and this lot is commonly
thought more dismal than any death ; for death cuts off
memory of all things, while the living cannot forget the [&7]
devastation of his own body. Therefore this mischief also
must be helped somehow ; so let it be agreed, that the injury

106 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

of either of us by the other shall be made good with ten
talents [marks] of gold. For if it be righteous to have
compassion on the calamities of another, how much more is it
to pity one's own ? No man but obeys nature's prompting ;
and he who slights it is a self-murderer."

After mutually pledging their faiths to these terms, they
began the battle. Nor were their strangeness in meeting one
another, nor the sweetness of that spring-green spot, so heeded
as to prevent them from the fray. Horwendil, in his too
great ardour, became keener to attack his enemy than to defend
his own body; and, heedless of his shield, had grasped his sword
with both hands ; and his boldness did not fail. For by his
rain of blows he destroyed Roll's shield and deprived him of
it, and at last hewed off his foot and drove him lifeless to the
ground. Then, not to fail of his compact, he buried him
royally, gave him a howe of lordly make and pompous
obsequies. Then he pursued and slew Roller's sister Sela, who
was a skilled warrior and experienced in roving.

He had now passed three years in valiant deeds of war ;
and, in order to win higher rank in Rorik's favour, he assigned
to him the best trophies and the pick of the plunder. His
friendship with Rorik enabled him to woo and win in marriage
his daughter Gerutha, who bore him a son Amleth.

Such great good fortune stung Feng with jealousy, so
that he resolved treacherously to waylay his brother, thus
showing that goodness is not safe even from those of a man's
own house. And behold, when a chance came to murder him,
his bloody hand sated the deadly passion of his soul. Then
he took the wife of the brother he had butchered, capping
unnatural murder1 with incest. For whoso yields to one
iniquity, speedily falls an easier victim to the next, the first
being an incentive to the second. Also the man veiled the

1 Unnatural murder] These words of the Ghost in Hamlet, i. 4. 25,
exactly translate parricidimn, which (with parricida) occurs constantly in
this narrative, and has been variously rendered by " slaying of kin",
"fratricide", etc. For the whole story see the note at the end of the
volume on " Saxo's Hamlet".

BOOK THREE. 107

monstrosity of his deed with such hardihood of cunning, that
he made up a mock pretence of goodwill to excuse his crime,
and glossed over fratricide with a show of righteousness.
Gerutha, said he, though so gentle that she would do no man
the slightest hurt, had been visited with her husband's
extremest hate ; and it was all to save her that he had slain
his brother ; for he thought it shameful that a lady so meek
and unrancorous should suffer the heavy disdain of her
husband. Nor did his smooth words fail in their intent ; for [88]
at courts, where fools are sometimes favoured and backbiters
preferred, a lie lacks not credit. Nor did Feng keep from
shameful embraces the hands that had slain a brother ; pur-
suing with equal guilt both of his wicked and impious deeds.

Amleth beheld all this, but feared lest too shrewd a behaviour
might make his uncle suspect him. So he chose to feign dulness,
and pretend an utter lack of wits. This cunning course not only
concealed his intelligence but ensured his safety. Every day
he remained in his mother's house utterly listless and unclean,
flinging himself on the ground, and bespattering his person
with foul and filthy dirt. His discoloured face and visage
smutched with slime denoted foolish and grotesque madness.
All he said was of a piece wijh these follies ; all he did
savoured of utter lethargy. In a word, you would not have
thought him a man at all, but some absurd abortion due to
a mad fit of destiny. He used at times to sit over the fire,
and, raking up the embers with his hands, to fashion wooden
crooks,1 and harden them in the fire, shaping at their tips
certain barbs, to make them hold more tightly to their
fastenings. When asked what he was about, he said that he
was preparing sharp javelins to avenge his father. This
answer was not a little scoffed at, all men deriding his idle and
ridiculous pursuit; but the thing helped his purpose afterwards.
Now it was his craft in this matter that first awakened in the
deeper observers a suspicion of his cunning. For his skill in
a trifling art betokened the hidden talent of the craftsman ;

1 Crooks] M. thinks there is a play on the Icel. krdkr, which means
both a crook and a trick.

108 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

nor could they believe the spirit dull where the hand had
acquired so cunning a workmanship. Lastly, he always
watched with the most punctual care over his pile of stakes
that he had pointed in the fire. Some people, therefore,
declared that his mind was quick enough, and fancied that he
only played the simpleton in order to hide his understanding,
and veiled some deep purpose under a cunning feint. His
wiliness (said these) would be most readily detected, if a
fair woman were put in his way in some secluded place,
who should provoke his mind to the temptations of love ; all
men's natural temper being too blindly amorous to be artfully
dissembled, and this passion being also too impetuous to be
checked by cunning. Therefore, if his lethargy were feigned,
he would seize the opportunity, and yield straightway to
violent delights. So men were commissioned to draw the young
[89] man in his rides into a remote part of the forest, and there
assail him with a temptation of this nature. Among these
chanced to be a foster-brother of Amleth, who had not ceased
to have regard to their common nurture; and who esteemed
his present orders less than the memory of their past fellowship.
He attended Amleth among his appointed train, being anxious
not to entrap, but to warn# him ; and was persuaded that he
would suffer the worst if he showed the slightest glimpse of
sound reason, and above all if he did the act of love openly.
This was also plain enough to Amleth himself. For when he
was bidden mount his horse, he deliberately set himself in
such a fashion that he turned his back to the neck and faced
about, fronting the tail ; which he proceeded to encompass
with the reins, just as if on that side he would check the horse
in its furious pace. By this cunning thought he eluded the
trick, and overcame the treachery of his uncle. The reinless
steed galloping on, with the rider directing its tail, was
ludicrous enough to behold.

Amleth went on, and a wolf crossed his path amid the thicket.
When his companions told him that a young colt had met him,
he retorted, that in Feng's stud there were too few of that
kind fighting. This was a gentle but witty fashion of in-

BOOK THREE. 109

voking a curse upon his uncle's riches. When they averred
that he had given a cunning answer, he answered that he
had spoken deliberately : for he was loth to be thought prone
to lying about any matter, and wished to be held a stranger
to falsehood ; and accordingly he mingled craft and candour
in such wise that, though his words did lack truth, yet
there was nothing to betoken the truth and betray how far
his keenness went.

Again, as he passed along the beach, his companions found
the rudder of a ship which had been wrecked, and said they
had discovered a huge knife. " This", said he, " was the right
thing to carve such a huge ham ;" by which he really meant
the sea, to whose infinitude, he thought, this enormous rudder
matched. Also, as they passed the sandhills, and bade him look
at the meal, meaning the sand, he replied that it had been
ground small1 by the hoary tempests of the ocean. His com-
panions praising his answer, he said that he had spoken it
wittingly. Then they purposely left him, that he might pluck
up more courage to practise wantonness. The woman whom
his uncle had dispatched met him in a dark spot, as though
she had crossed him by chance ; and he took her and would
have ravished her, had not his foster-brother, by a secret
device, given him an inkling of the trap. For this man,
while pondering the fittest way to play privily the prompter's [qq]
part, and forestall the young man's hazardous lewdness, found a
straw on the ground and fastened it underneath the tail of a
gadfly that was flying past ; which he then drove towards the
particular quarter where he knew Amleth to be : an act which
served the unwary prince exceedingly well. The token was
interpreted as shrewdly as it had been sent. For Amleth saw
the gadfly, espied with curiosity the straw which it wore em-
bedded in its tail, and perceived that it was a secret warning
to beware of treachery. Alarmed, scenting a trap, and fain to
possess his desire in greater safety, he caught up the woman
in his arms and dragged her off to a distant and impenetrable

1 Ground small] See note on "Saxo's Hamlet" for the importance of
this.

110 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

fen. Moreover, when they had lain together, he conjured her
earnestly to disclose the matter to none, and the promise of
silence was accorded as heartily as it was asked. For both of
them had been under the same fostering in their childhood ;
and this early rearing in common had brought Amleth and
the girl into great intimacy.

So, when he had returned home, they all jeering! y asked
him whether he had given way to love, and he avowed that
he had ravished the maid. When he was next asked where
he did it, and what had been his pillow, he said that he had
rested upon the hoof of a beast of burden, upon a cockscomb,
and also upon a ceiling. For, when he was starting into
temptation, he had gathered fragments of all these things, in
order to avoid lying. And though his jest did not take aught
of the truth out of the story, the answer was greeted with shouts
of merriment from the bystanders. The maiden, too, when ques-
tioned on the matter, declared that he had done no such thing ;
and her denial was the more readily credited when it was
found that the escort had not witnessed the deed. Then he
who had marked the gadfly in order to give a hint, wishing to
show Amleth that to his trick he owed his salvation, observed
that latterly he had been singly devoted to Amleth. The
young man's reply was apt. Not to seem forgetful of his
informant's service, he said that he had seen a certain thing
bearing a straw flit by suddenly, wearing a stalk of chaff
fixed on its hinder parts. The cleverness of this speech, which
made the rest split with laughter, rejoiced the heart of
Amleth's friend.

Thus all were worsted, and none could open the secret lock
of the young man's wisdom. But a friend of Feng, gifted more
[91] with assurance than judgment, declared that the unfathomable
cunning of such a mind could not be detected by any vulgar
plot, for the man's obstinacy was so great that it ought not
to be assailed with any mild measures ; there were many
sides to his wiliness, and it ought not to be entrapped by
any one method. Accordingly, said he, his own profound cr
acuteness had hit on a more delicate way, which was well fitted

BOOK THREE. Ill

to be put in practice, and would effectually discover what they
desired to know. Feng was purposely to absent himself, pre-
tending affairs of great import. Amleth should be closeted
alone with his mother in her chamber ; but a man should first
be commissioned to place himself in a concealed part of the
room and listen needfully to what they talked about. For if
the son had any wits at all he would not hesitate to speak out
in the hearing of his mother, or fear to trust himself to the
fidelity of her who bore him. The speaker, loth to seem readier
to devise than to carry out the plot, zealously proffered himself
as the agent of the eavesdropping. Feng rejoiced at the
scheme, and departed on pretence of a long journey. Now he
who had given this counsel repaired privily to the room where
Amleth was shut up with his mother, and lay down skulking
in the straw. But Amleth had his antidote for the treachery.
Afraid of being overheard by some eavesdropper, he at first
resorted to his usual imbecile ways, and crowed like a noisy
cock, beating his arms together to mimic the flapping of wings.
Then he mounted the straw and began to swing his body and
jump again and again, wishing to try if aught lurked there in
hiding. Feeling a lump beneath his feet, he drove his sword
into the spot, and impaled him who lay hid. Then he dragged
him from his concealment and slew him. Then, cutting his
body into morsels, he seethed it in boiling water, and flung it
through the mouth of an open sewer for the swine to eat,
bestrewing the stinking mire with his hapless limbs. Having
in this wise eluded the snare, he went back to the room. Then
his mother set up a great wailing, and began to lament her
son's folly to his face ; but he said : " Most infamous of
women ! dost thou seek with such lying lamentations to hide
thy most heavy guilt ? Wantoning like a harlot, thou hast
entered a wicked and abominable state of wedlock, embracing
with incestuous bosom thy husband's slayer, and wheedling
with filthy lures of blandishment him who had slain the father
of thy son. This, forsooth, is the way that the mares couple
with the vanquishers of their mates ; for brute beasts are
naturally incited to pair indiscriminately ; and it would seem [92]

112 SAXO GRAMMA T1CUS.

that thou, like them, hast clean forgot thy first husband.
As for me, not idly do I wear the mask of folly ; for I doubt
not that he who destroyed his brother will riot as ruthlessly
in the blood of his kindred. Therefore it is better to
choose the o-arb of dulness than that of sense, and to borrow
some protection from a show of utter frenzy. Yet the
passion to avenge my father still burns in my heart ; but I
am watching the chances, I await the fitting hour. There is
a place for all things ; against so merciless and dark a spirit
must be used the deeper devices of the mind. And thou,
who hadst been better employed in lamenting thine own dis-
grace, know it is superfluity to bewail my witlessness ; thou
shouldst weep for the blemish in thine own mind, not for that
in another's. On the rest see thou keep silence." With such
reproaches he rent the heart of his mother and redeemed her
to walk in the ways of virtue ; teaching her to set the fires of
the past above the seductions of the present.

When Feng returned, nowhere could he find the man who
had suggested the treacherous espial ; he searched for him long
and carefully, but none said they had seen him anywhere.
Amleth, among others, was asked in jest if he had come on any
trace of him, and replied that the man had gone to the sewer,
but had fallen through its bottom and been stifled by the floods
of filth, and that he had then been devoured by the SAvine that
came up all about that place. This speech was flouted by those
who heard ; for it seemed senseless, though really it expressly
avowed the truth.

Feng now suspected that his stepson was certainly full of
guile, and desired to make away with him, but durst not do
the deed for fear of the displeasure, not only of Amleth's grand-
si re Rorik, but also of his own wife. So he thought that the
King of Britain should be employed to slay him, so that
another could do the deed, and he be able to feign innocence.
Thus, desirous to hide his cruelty, he chose rather to besmirch
his friend than to bring disgrace on his own head. Amleth,
on departing, gave secret orders to his mother to hang the
hall with knotted tapestry, and to perform pretended obse-

BOOK THREE. 113

quies for him a year thence ; promising that he would then
return. Two retainers of Feng then accompanied him, bear-
ing a letter graven on wood — a kind of writing material
frequent in old times ; this letter enjoined the king of the
Britons to put to death the youth who was sent over to
him. While they were reposing, Amleth searched their coffers,
found the letter, and read the instructions therein. Where-
upon he erased all the writing on the surface, substituted
fresh characters, and so, changing the purport of the instruc-
tions, shifted his own doom upon his companions. Nor was
he satisfied with removing from himself the sentence of death [93]
and passing the peril on to others, but added an entreaty that
the King of Britain would grant his daughter in marriage to a
youth of great judgment whom he was sending to him. Under
this was falsely marked the signature of Feng.

Now when they had reached Britain, the envoys went to the
king, and proffered him the letter which they supposed was an
implement of destruction to another, but which really betokened
death to themselves. The king dissembled the truth, and en-
treated them hospitably and kindly. Then Amleth scouted all
the splendour of the royal banquet like vulgar viands, and
abstaining very strangely, rejected that plenteous feast, re-
fraining from the drink even as from the banquet. All
marvelled that a youth and a foreigner should disdain the
carefully-cooked dainties of the royal board and the luxurious
banquet provided, as if it were some peasant's relish. So,
when the revel broke up, and the king was dismissing his
friends to rest, he had a man sent into the sleeping-room to
listen secretly, in order that he might hear the midnight
conversation of his guests. Now, when Amleth's companions
asked him why he had refrained from the feast of yestereve,
as if it were poison, he answered that the bread was flecked
with blood and tainted ; that there was a tang of iron in
the liquor; while the meats of the feast reeked of the stench
of a human carcase, and were infected by a kind of smack
of the odour of the charnel. He further said that the kino'
had the eyes of a slave, and that the queen had in three

114 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

ways shown the behaviour of a bondmaid. Thus he reviled
with insulting invective not so much the feast as its givers.
And presently his companions, taunting him with his old
defect of wits, began to flout him with many saucy jeers,
because he blamed and cavilled at seemly and worthy things,
and because he attacked thus ignobly an illustrious king and
a lady of so refined a behaviour, bespattering with the shame-
fullest abuse those who merited all praise.

All this the king heard from his retainer ; and declared
that he who could say such things had either more than mortal
wisdom or more than mortal folly ; in these few words
fathoming the full depth of Amleth's penetration. Then he
summoned his steward and asked him whence he had pro-
cured the bread. The steward declared that it had been made
by the king's own baker. The king asked where the corn
had grown of which it was made, and whether any sign was to
be found there of human carnage ? The other answered, that
not far off was a field, covered with the ancient bones of
[94] slaughtered men, and still bearing plainly all the signs of
ancient carnage ; and that he had himself planted this field
with grain in springtide, thinking it more fruitful than
the rest, and hoping for plenteous abundance ; and so, for
aught he knew, the bread had caught some evil savour from
this bloodshed. The king, on hearing this, surmised that
Amleth had spoken truly, and took the pains to learn also
what had been the source of the lard. The other declared
that his hogs had, through negligence, strayed from keeping,
and battened 011 the rotten carcase of a robber, and that per-
chance their pork had thus come to have something of a
corrupt smack. The king, finding that Amleth's judgment
was right in this thing also, asked of what liquor the steward
had mixed the drink ? Hearing that it had been brewed of
water and meal, he had the spot of the spring pointed out to
him, and set to digging deep down ; and there he found, rusted
away, several swords, the tang whereof it was thought had
tainted the waters. Others relate that Amleth blamed the
drink because, while quaffing it, he had detected .some bees

BOOK THREE. 115

that had fed in the paunch of a dead man ; and that the
taint, which had formerly been imparted to the combs, had
reappeared in the taste. The king, seeing that Amleth had
rightly given the causes of the taste he had found so faulty,
and learning that the ignoble eyes wherewith Amleth had
reproached him concerned some stain upon his birth, had a
secret interview with his mother, and asked her who his
father had really been. She said she had submitted to no
man but the king. But when he threatened that he would
have the truth out of her by a trial, he was told that he
was the offspring of a slave. By the evidence of the avowal
thus extorted he understood the whole mystery of the re-
proach upon his origin. Abashed as he was with shame
for his low estate, he was so ravished with the young man's
cleverness, that he asked him why he had aspersed the queen
with the reproach that she had demeaned herself like a slave ?
But while resenting that the courtliness of his wife had been
accused in the midnight gossip of a guest, he found that her
mother had been a bondmaid. For Amleth said he had noted
in her three blemishes showing the demeanour of a slave ;
first, she had muffled her head in her mantle as bondmaids
do ; next, that she had gathered up her gown for walking ; and
thirdly, that she had first picked out with a splinter, and then
chewed up, the remnant of food that stuck in the crevices
between her teeth. Further, he mentioned that the king's
mother had been brought into slavery from captivity, lest
she should seem servile only in her habits, yet not in her
birth.

Then the king adored the wisdom of Amleth as though it
were inspired, and gave him his daughter to wife ; accepting
his bare word as though it were a witness from the skies.
Moreover, in order to fulfil the bidding of his friend, he hanged [95]
Amleth's companions on the morrow. Amleth, feigning
offence, treated this piece of kindness as a grievance, and
received from the king, as compensation, some gold, which
he afterwards melted in the fire, and secretly caused to be
poured into some hollowed sticks.

116 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

When he had passed a whole year with the king he obtained
leave to make a journey, and returned to his own land, carrying
away of all his princely wealth and state only the sticks which
held the gold. On reaching Jutland, he exchanged his present
attire for his ancient demeanour, which he had adopted for
righteous ends, purposely assuming an aspect of absurdity.
Covered with filth, he entered the banquet-room where his
own obsequies were being held, and struck all men utterly
aghast, rumour having falsely noised abroad his death. At last
terror melted into mirth, and the guests jeered and taunted
one another, that he whose last rites they were celebrating as
though he were dead, should appear in the flesh. When he
was asked concerning his comrades, he pointed to the sticks he
was carrying, and said, " Here is both the one and the other."
This he observed with equal truth and pleasantry ; for his
speech, though most thought it idle, yet departed not from
the truth ; for it pointed at the weregild of the slain as
though it were themselves. Thereon, wishing to brino* the
company into a gayer mood, he joined the cupbearers, and
diligently did the office of plying the drink. Then, to prevent
his loose dress hampering his walk, he girded his sword upon
his side, and purposely drawing it several times, pricked his
fingers with its point. The bystanders accordingly had both
sword and scabbard riveted across with an iron nail. Then, to
smooth the way more safely to his plot, he went to the lords
and plied them heavily with draught upon draught, and
drenched them all so deep in wine, that their feet were made
feeble with drunkenness, and they turned to rest within the
palace, making their bed where they had revelled. Then he
saw they were in a fit state for his plots, and thought that here
was a chance offered to do his purpose. So he took out of his
bosom the stakes he had long ago prepared, and went into the
building, where the ground lay covered with the bodies of the
nobles wheezing off' their sleep and their debauch. Then, cut-
ting away its supports, he brought down the hanging his mother
had knitted, which covered the inner as well as the outer walls
of the hall. This he flung upon the snorers, and then apply-

BOOK THREE. 117

ing the crooked stakes, he knotted and bound them up in such
insoluble intricacy, that not one of the men beneath, however
hard lie might struggle, could contrive to rise. After this he [96]
set fire to the palace. The flames spread, scattering the con-
flagration far and wide. It enveloped the whole dwelling,
destroyed the palace, and burnt them all while they were
either buried in deep sleep or vainly striving to arise. Then
he went to the chamber of Feng, who had before this been
conducted by his train into his pavilion ; plucked up a sword
that chanced to be hanging to the bed, and planted his own in
its place. Then, awakening his uncle, he told him that his
nobles were perishing in the flames, and that Amleth was here,
armed with his old crooks to help him, and thirsting to exact
the vengeance, now long overdue, for his father's murder.
Feng, on hearing this, leapt from his couch, but was cut down
while, deprived of his own sword, he strove in vain to draw the
strange one. O valiant Amleth, and worthy of immortal fame,
who being shrewdly armed with a feint of folly, covered a
wisdom too high for human wit under a marvellous disguise of
silliness ! and not only found in his subtlety means to protect
his own safety, but also by its guidance found opportunity to
avenge his father. By this skilful defence of himself, and
strenuous revenge for his parent, he has left it doubtful
whether we are to think more of his wit or his bravery.

END OF BOOK THREE.

BOOK FOUR

[97] Amleth, when lie had accomplished the slaughter of his step-
father, feared to expose his deed to the fickle judgment of his
countrymen, and thought it well to lie in hiding till he had
learnt what way the mob of the uncouth populace was tending.
So the whole neighbourhood, who had watched the blaze during
the niodit, and in the morning desired to know the cause of
the fire they had seen, perceived the royal palace fallen in
ashes ; and, on searching through its ruins, which were yet
warm, found only some shapeless remains of burnt corpses.
For the devouring flame had consumed everything so utterly,
that not a single token was left to inform them of the cause
of such a disaster. Also they saw the body of Feng lying
pierced by the sword, amid his blood-stained raiment. Some
were seized with open anger, others with grief, and some with
secret delight. One party bewailed the death of their leader,
the other gave thanks that the tyranny of the fratricide was
now laid at rest. Thus the occurrence of the king's slaughter
was greeted by the beholders with diverse minds.

Amleth, finding the people so quiet, made bold to leave his
hiding. Summoning those in whom he knew the memory of
his father to be fast-rooted, he went to the assembly and
there made a speech after this manner :

:' Nobles ! Let not any who are troubled by the piteous end
of Horwendil be troubled by the sight of this disaster before
you : be not ye, I say, troubled, who have remained loyal to
your king and duteous to your father. Behold the corpse, not
of a prince, but of a fratricide. Indeed, it was a sorrier sight
when ye saw our prince lying lamentably butchered by a most
infamous fratricide— brother, let me not call him. With your
own compassionating eyes ye have beheld the mangled limbs

BOOK FOUR. 119

of Horwendil ; they heave seen his body done to death with
many wounds. Surely that most abominable butcher only de-
prived his king of life that he might despoil his country of
freedom ! The hand that slew him made you slaves. Who [98]
then so mad as to choose Feng the cruel before Horwendil the
righteous ? Remember how benignantly Horwendil fostered
you, how justly he dealt with you, how kindly he loved you.
Remember how you lost the mildest of princes and the justest
of fathers, while in his place was put a tyrant and an assassin
set up ; how you rights were confiscated ; how everything
was plague-stricken ; how the country was stained with
infamies ; how the yoke was planted on your necks, and
how your free will was forfeited ! And now all this is
over ; for ye see the criminal stifled in his own crimes, the
slayer of his kin punished for his misdoings. What man of
but ordinary wit, beholding it, would account this kindness a
wrong ? What sane man could be sorry that the crime has
recoiled upon the culprit ? Who could lament the killing of a
most savage executioner ? or bewail the righteous death of a
most cruel despot ? Ye behold the doer of the deed ; he is
before you. Yea, I own that I have taken vengeance for my
country and my father. Your hands were equally bound to
the task which mine fulfilled. What it would have beseemed
you to accomplish with me, I achieved alone. Nor had I any
partner in so glorious a deed, or the service of any man to
help me. Not that I forget that you would have helped this
work, had I asked you ; for doubtless you have remained loyal
to your king and loving to your prince. But I chose that the
wicked should be punished without imperilling you ; I thought
that others need not set their shoulders to the burden when I
deemed mine strong enough to bear it. Therefore I consumed
all the others to ashes, and left only the trunk of Feng for
your hands to burn, so that on this at least you may wreak
all your longing for a righteous vengeance. Now haste up
speedily, heap the pyre, burn up the body of the wicked,
consume away his guilty limbs, scatter his sinful ashes, strew
broadcast his ruthless dust : let no urn or barrow enclose the

120 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

abominable remnants of his bones. Let no trace of his fratri-
cide remain ; let there be no spot in his own land for his
tainted limbs ; let no neighbourhood suck infection from him ;
let not sea nor soil be defiled by harbouring his accursed
carcase. I have done the rest ; this one loyal duty is left for
you. These must be the tyrant's obsequies, this the funeral
procession of the fratricide. It is not seemly that he who
stripped his country of her freedom should have his ashes
covered by his country's earth.

" Besides, why tell again my own sorrows ? Why count over
my troubles ? Why weave the thread of my miseries anew ?
Ye know them more fully than I myself. I, pursued to the
death by my stepfather, scorned by my mother, spat upon by
friends, have passed my years in pitiable wise, and my days in
[99] adversity ; and my insecure life has teemed with fear and perils.
Tn fine, I passed every season of my age wretchedly and in
extreme calamity. Often in your secret murmurings together
you have sighed over my lack of wits : there was none (you
said) to avenge the father, none to punish the fratricide. And
in this I found a secret testimony of your love ; for I saw that
the memory of the King's murder had not yet faded from
your minds.

" Whose breast is so hard that it can be softened by no fellow-
feeling1 for what I have felt ? Who is so stiff and stony, that
he is swayed by no compassion for my griefs ? Ye whose hands
are clean of the blood of Horwendil, pity your fosterling, be
moved by my calamities. Pity also my stricken mother, and
rejoice with me that the infamy of her who was once your
queen is quenched. For this weak woman had to bear a two-
fold weight of ignominy, embracing one who was her husbands
brother and murderer. Therefore, to hide my purpose of re-
venue and to veil mv wit, I counterfeited a listless bearing ; I
feigned dulness ; I planned a stratagem ; and now you can see
with your own eyes whether it has succeeded, whether it has

1 Fellow-feeling for what I have felt] compassio passionum mearum.
The words are rare, and there is a play in them which it is hard to render
closely.

BOOK FOUR. 121

achieved its purpose to the full ; I am content to leave you to
judge so great a matter. It is your turn : trample under foot
the ashes of the murderer ! Disdain the dust of him who slew
his brother, and denied his brother's queen with infamous
desecration, who outraged his sovereign and treasonably
assailed his majesty, who brought the sharpest tyranny upon
you, stole your freedom, and crowned fratricide with incest. I
have been the agent of this just vengeance ; I have burned for
this righteous retribution : uphold me with a high-born spirit ;
pay me the homage that you owe ; warm me with your kindly
looks. It is I who have wiped off my country's shame ; I who
have quenched my mother's dishonour ; I who have beaten back
oppression ; I who have put to death the murderer ; I who have
baffled the artful hand of my uncle with retorted arts. Were
he living, each new day would have multiplied his crimes. I
resented the wrong done to father and to fatherland: I slew him
who was governing you outrageously and more hardly than it
beseemed men. Acknowledge my service, honour my wit, give
me the throne if I have earned it ; for you have in me one
who has done you a mighty service, and who is no degenerate
heir to his father's power ; no fratricide, but the lawful suc-
cessor to the throne ; and a dutiful avenger of the crime of
murder. You have me to thank for the recovery of the
blessings of freedom, for release from the power of him
who vexed you, for relief from the oppressor's yoke, for
shaking off the sway of the murderer, for trampling the [ioo]
despot's sceptre under foot. It is I who have stripped you of
slavery, and clothed you with freedom ; I have restored your
height of fortune, and given you your glory back ; I have
deposed the despot and triumphed over the butcher. In your
hands is the reward : you know what I have done for you : and
from your righteousness I ask my wage."

Every heart had been moved while the young man thus
spoke ; he affected some to compassion, and some even to
tears. When the lamentation ceased, he was appointed king1

1 Appointed king] See note on p. 128, below.

122 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

by prompt and general acclaim. For one and all rested the
greatest hopes on his wisdom, since he had devised the whole
of such an achievement with the deepest cunning, and accom-
plished it with the most astonishing contrivance. Many could
have been seen marvelling how he had concealed so subtle a
plan over so long a space of time.

After these deeds in Denmark he equipped three vessels
lavishly, and went back to Britain to see his wife and her
father. He had also enrolled in his service the flower of
the warriors, and arrayed them very choicely, wishing to have
everything now magnificently appointed, even as of old he had
always worn contemptible gear, and to change all his old
devotion to poverty for outlay on luxury. He also had a
shield made for him, whereon the whole series of his exploits,
beginning with his earliest youth, was painted in exquisite
designs. This he bore as a record of his deeds of prowess, and
gained great increase of fame thereby. Here were to be seen
depicted the slaying of Horwendil1 ; the fratricide and incest
of Feng ; the infamous uncle, the whimsical nephew ; the
shapes of the hooked stakes ; the stepfather suspecting, the
stepson dissembling ; the various temptations offered, and the
woman brought to beguile him; the gaping wolf; the finding of
the rudder; the passing of the sand; the entering of the wood ;
the putting of the straw through the gadfly ; the warning of the
youth by the tokens ; and the privy dealings with the maiden
after the escort was eluded. And likewise could be seen the
picture of the palace ; the queen there with her son ; the slay-
ing of the eavesdropper ; and how, after being killed, he was
boiled down, and so dropped into the sewer, and so thrown
out to the swine ; how his limbs were strewn in the mud, and
so left for the beasts to finish. Also it could be seen how
Amleth surprised the secret of his sleeping attendants, how he
erased the letters, and put new characters in their places; how

1 The slaying of Horwendil] Horweudillijuijuhini; St. suggests (besides
other things) inserting confossvm, or reading HorwendiUvm jugulatum ;
hut Saxo seems again to use jiu/ulum almost in the sense of "murder" in
Bk. vi, p. 184 (ed. Holder), 1. 11.

BOOK FOUR. 123

lie disdained the banquet and scorned the drink ; how he con-
demned the face of the king and taxed the queen with faulty
behaviour. There was also represented the hanging of the
envoys, and the young man's wedding ; then the voyage back
to Denmark ; the festive celebration of the funeral rites; Amleth, [101]
in answer to questions, pointing to the sticks in place of his
attendants, acting as cup-bearer, and purposely drawing his
sword and pricking his fingers; the sword riveted through, the
swelling cheers of the banquet, the dance growing fast and
furious ; the hangings flung upon the sleepers, then fastened
with the interlacing crooks, and wrapped tightly round them
as they slumbered ; the brand set to the mansion, the burning
of the guests, the royal palace consumed with fire and tottering
down ; the visit to the sleeping-room of Feng, the theft of his
sword, the useless one set in its place ; and the king slain with
his own sword's point by his stepson's hand. All this was
there, painted upon Amleth's battle-shield by a careful crafts-
man in the choicest of handiwork ; he copied truth in his
figures, and embodied real deeds in his outlines. Moreover,
Amleth's followers, to increase the splendour of their presence,
wore shields which were gilt over.

The King of Britain received them very graciously, and
treated them with costly and royal pomp. During the feast
he asked anxiously whether Feng was alive and prosperous.
His son-in-law told him that the man of whose welfare he was
vainly inquiring had perished by the sword. With a flood of
questions he tried to find out who had slain Feng, and learnt
that the messenger of his death was likewise its author. And
when the king heard this, he was secretly aghast, because
he found that an old promise to avenge Feng now devolved
upon himself. For Feng and he had determined of old, by a
mutual compact, that one of them should act as avenger of the
other. Thus the king was drawn one way by his love for his
daughter and his affection for his son-in-law, another way by
his regard for his friend, and moreover by his strict oath and
the sanctity of their mutual declarations, which it was impious
to violate. At last he slighted the ties of kinship, and sworn

124 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

faith prevailed. His heart turned to vengeance, and he put the
sanctity of his oatli before family bonds. But since it was
thought sin to wrong the holy ties of hospitality, he preferred
to execute his revenge by the hand of another, wishing to mask
his secret crime with a show of innocence. So he veiled his
treachery with attentions, and hid his intent to harm under a
show of zealous goodwill. His queen having lately died of
illness, he requested Amleth to undertake the mission of
making him a fresh match, saying that he was highly
delighted with his extraordinary shrewdness. He declared
that there was a certain queen reigning in Scotland, whom he
vehemently desired to marry. Now he knew that she was not
only unwedded by reason of her chastity, but that in the
[102] cruelty of her arrogance she had always loathed her wooers,
and had inflicted on her lovers the uttermost punishment,
so that not one out of all the multitude was to be found who
had not paid for his insolence with his life.

Perilous as this commission was, Amleth started, never
shrinking to obey the duty imposed upon him, but trusting
partly in his own servants, and partly in the attendants of the
king. He entered Scotland, and, when quite close to the abode
of the queen, he went into a meadow by the wayside to rest
his horses. Pleased by the look of the spot, he thought of
resting — the pleasant prattle of the stream exciting a desire to
sleep — and posted men to keep watch some way off. The queen
on hearing of this, sent out ten warriors to spy on the approach
of the foreigners and their equipment. One of these, being
quick-witted, slipped past the sentries, pertinaciously made his
way up, and took away the shield, which Amleth had chanced
to set at his head before he slept, so gently that he did not
ruffle his slumbers, though he was lying upon it, nor awaken
one man of all that troop ; for he wished to assure his mistress
not only by report but by some token. With equal address
he filched the letter entrusted to Amleth from the coffer in
which it was kept. When these things were brought to the
queen, she scanned the shield narrowly, and from the notes
appended made out the whole argument. Then she knew that

BOOK FOUR. 125

here was the man who, trusting in his own nicely-calculated
scheme, had avenged on his uncle the murder of his father.
She also looked at the letter containing the suit for her
hand, and rubbed out all the writing ; for wedlock with the
old she utterly abhorred, and desired the embraces of young
men. But she wrote in its place a commission purporting to
be sent from the King of Britain to herself, signed like the
other with his name and title, wherein she pretended that she
was asked to marry the bearer. Moreover, she included an
account of the deeds of which she had learnt from Amleth's
shield, so that one would have thought the shield confirmed
the letter, while the letter explained the shield. Then she
told the same spies whom she had employed before to take
the shield back, and put the letter in its place again ; playing
the very trick on Amleth which, as she had learnt, he had
himself used in outwitting his companions.

Amleth, meanwhile, who found that his shield had been
filched from under his head, deliberately shut his eyes and
cunningly feigned sleep, hoping to regain by pretended what he
had lost by real slumbers. For he thought that the success of
his one attempt would incline the spy to deceive him a second [103]
time. And he was not mistaken. For as the spy came up
stealthily, and wanted to put back the shield and the writing in
their old place, Amleth leapt up, seized him, and detained him
in bonds. Then he roused his retinue, and went to the abode
of the queen. As representing his father-in-law, he greeted
her, and handed her the writing, sealed with the king's seal.
The queen, who was named Hermutrude, took and read it,
and spoke most warmly of Amleth's diligence and shrewdness,
saying, that Feng had deserved his punishment, and that the
unfathomable wit of Amleth had accomplished a deed past all
human estimation ; seeing that not only had his impenetrable
depth devised a mode of revenging his father's death and
his mother's adultery, but it had further, by his notable deeds
of prowess, seized the kingdom of the man whom he had found
constantly plotting against him. She marvelled therefore
that a man of such instructed mind could have made the one

126 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

slip of a mistaken marriage ; for though his renown almost
rose above mortality, he seemed to have stumbled into an
obscure and ignoble match. For the parents of his wife had
been slaves, though good luck had graced them with the
honours of royalty. Now (said she), when looking for a wife,
a wise man must reckon the lustre of her birth and not of her
beauty. Therefore, if he were to seek a match in a proper
spirit, he should weigh the ancestry, and not be smitten by
the looks ; for though looks were a lure to temptation, yet
their empty bedizen ment had tarnished the white simplicity1
of many a man. Now there was a women, as nobly born as
himself, whom he could take. She herself, whose means were
not poor nor her birth lowly, was worthy his embraces, since
he did not surpass her in royal wealth nor outshine her in
the honour of his ancestors. Indeed she was a queen, and
but that her sex gainsaid it, might be deemed a king ; nay
(and this is yet truer), whomsoever she thought worthy of
her bed was at once a king, and she yielded her kingdom with
herself. Thus her sceptre and her hand went together. It was
no mean favour for such a woman to offer her love, who in
the case of other men had always followed her refusal with
the sword. Therefore she pressed him to transfer his wooing,
to make over to her his marriage vows, and to learn to prefer
birth to beauty. So saying, she fell upon him with a close
embrace.

Amleth was overjoyed at the gracious speech of the maiden,
fell to kissing back, and returned her close embrace, protesting
that the maiden's wish was his own. Then a banquet was held,
[104] friends bidden, the chief nobles gathered, and the marriage
rites performed. When they were accomplished, he went back
to Britain with his bride, a strong band of Scots being told to

1 Their empty bedizenment had tarnished the white simplicity of many
a man] multorum candor&m i naniter fiicata detersit. Cicero, whom Saxo
read, applies (ad Brut. § 23) fucati is caiulor, "daubed-on ceruse," to an
artificial way of speaking. Perhaps Saxo had a confused remembrance
of the passage, and was led to contrast jucata and candor in this curious
sentence.

BOOK FOUR. 127

follow close behind, that he might have its help against the
diverse treacheries in his path. As he was returning, the
daughter of the King of Britain, to whom he was still married,
met him. Though she complained that she was slighted by the
wrong of having a paramour put over her, yet, she said, it
would be unworthy for her to hate him as an adulterer more
than she loved him as a husband ; nor would she so far shrink
from her lord as to bring herself to hide in silence the guile
which she knew was intended against him. For she had a son
as a pledge of their marriage, and regard for him, if nothing
else, must have inclined his mother to the affection of a wife.
" He", she said, " may hate the supplanter of his mother, I will
love her ; no disaster shall put out my flame for thee ; no
ill-will shall quench it, or prevent me from exposing the malig-
nant designs against thee, or from revealing the snares I have
detected. Bethink thee, then, that thou must beware of thy
father-in-law, for thou hast thyself reaped the harvest of thy
mission, foiled the wishes of him who sent thee, and with
wilful trespass seized over all the fruit for thyself." By this
speech she showed herself more inclined to love her husband
than her father.

While she thus spoke, the King of Britain came up and
embraced his son-in-law closely, but with little love, and
welcomed him with a banquet, to hide his intended guile under
a show of generosity. But Arnleth, having learnt the deceit,
dissembled his fear, took a retinue of two hundred horsemen,
put on an under-shirt1 [of mail], and complied with the invita-
tion, preferring the peril of falling in with the king's deceit to
the shame of hanging back. So much heed for honour did he
think that he must take in all things. As he rode up close,
the king attacked him just under the porch of the folding-
doors, and would have thrust him through with his javelin,
but that the hard shirt of mail threw off the blade. Anileth
received a slight wound, and went to the spot where he had
bidden the Scottish warriors wait on duty. He then sent back

1 Under-shirt of mail] subarmalem vestem, lit. "a robe under the
shoulders' (armi). The context shows it must have been mail.

128 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

to the king his new wife's spy, whom he had captured.
This man was to bear witness that he had secretly taken
from the coffer where it was kept the letter which was
meant for his mistress, and thus was to make the whole
blame recoil on Hermutrude, by this studied excuse absolving
Amleth from the charge of treachery. The king without
tarrying pursued Amleth hotly as he fled, and deprived him
of most of his forces. So Amleth, on the morrow, wishing to
fight for dear life, and utterly despairing of his powers of
[105] resistance, tried to increase his apparent numbers. He put
stakes under some of the dead bodies of his comrades to prop
them up, set others on horseback like living men, and tied
others to neighbouring stones, not taking off any of their
armour, and dressing them in due order of line and wedge,
just as if they were about to engage. The wing composed
of the dead was as thick as the troop of the living. It was
an amazing spectacle this, of dead men dragged out to battle,
and corpses mustered to fight. The plan served him well,
for the very figures of the dead men showed like a vast
array as the sunbeams struck them. For those dead and
senseless shapes restored the original number of the army so
well, that the mass might have been unthinned by the slaughter
of yesterday. The Britons, terrified at the spectacle, fled
before fighting, conquered by the dead men whom they had
overcome in life. I cannot tell whether to think more of the
cunning or of the good fortune of this victory. The Danes
came down on the king as he was tardily making off, and killed
him. Amleth, triumphant, made a great plundering, seized
the spoils of Britain, and went back with his wives to his own
land.

Meanwhile Borik had died, and Wiglek, who had come to
the throne, had harassed Amleth's mother with all manner of
insolence and stripped her of her royal wealth, complaining
that her son had usurped the kingdom1 of Jutland and

1 Usurped the kingdom (regnum) of Jutland . . .] Amleth, like his
father and uncle, receives throughout the title of Rex, which has been
translated literally ; nor is there any hint at his election that the Jutes

BOOK FOUR, 129

defrauded the King of Leire, who had the sole privilege of
giving and taking away the rights of high offices. This
treatment Amleth took with such forbearance as apparently
to return kindness for slander, for he presented Wiglek with
the richest of his spoils. But afterwards he seized a chance
of taking vengeance, attacked him, subdued him, and from a
covert became an open foe. Fialler,1 the governor of Skaane,
he drove into exile ; and the tale is, that Fialler retired to a
spot called Undensakre,2 which is unknown to our peoples.
After this, Wiglek, recruited with the forces of Skaane and
Zealand, sent envoys to challenge Amleth to a war. Amleth,
with his marvellous shrewdness, saw that he was tossed
between two difficulties, one of which involved disgrace and
the other danger. For he knew that if he took up the challenge
he was threatened with peril of his life, while to shrink from
it would disgrace his reputation as a soldier. Yet in that
spirit ever fixed on deeds of prowess the desire to save his
honour won the day. Dread of disaster was blunted by more
vehement thirst for glory ; he would not tarnish the un-
blemished lustre of his fame by timidly skulking from his
fate. Also he saw that there is almost as wide a gap between [106]
a mean life and a noble death as that which is acknowledged
between honour and disgrace themselves. Yet he was en-
chained by such love for Hermutrude, that he was more deeply
concerned in his mind about her future widowhood than
about his own death, and cast about very zealously how he

are supposed to have had anyone but themselves to consult in choosing
their "king", though Rorik was reigning in Denmark. Yet Gerwendil, his
paternal grandfather (Bk. in, p. 104), was only prefectus, by which
Saxo commonly means earl or deputy-lord. That there was a certain
allegiance of a practical kind implied is clear from Horwendil (in,
p. 106) giving the spoil to Rorik, and winning Amleth's mother to wife.
On Wiglek 's accession, Amleth owns the tributary right by surrendering
choice spoil.

1 Fialler] Fiallerus, perhaps, should be rendered Fjalar (M.), or Mai
(Rydberg, § 92).

2 Undensakre] Icel. Oddinsakr, "acre of the not-dead". On the
significance of this see Rydberg, §§ 47, 50-52, etc.

L30 SAXO GRAMMATlCUS.

could decide on some second husband for her before the
opening of the war. Hermutrude, therefore, declared that
she had the courage of a man, and promised that she would
not forsake him even on the field, saying that the woman
who dreaded to be united with her lord in death was abomin-
able. But she kept this rare promise ill ; for when Amleth
had been slain by Wiglek in battle in Jutland, she yielded
herself up unasked to be the conqueror's spoil and bride.
Thus all vows of women are loosed by change of fortune
and melted by the shifting of time ; the faith of their soul
rests on a slippery foothold, and is weakened by casual chances;
glib in promises, and as sluggish in performance, all manner
of lustful promptings enslave it, and it bounds away with
panting and precipitate desire, forgetful of old things, in the
ever hot pursuit after something fresh. So ended Amleth.
Had fortune been as kind to him as nature, he would have
equalled the gods in glory, and surpassed the labours of
Hercules by his deeds of prowess. A plain in Jutland is
to be found, famous for his name and burial-place. Wiglek's
administration of the kingdom was long and peaceful, and he
died of disease.

Wermund, his son, succeeded him. The long and leisurely
tranquillity of a most prosperous and quiet time flowed by,
and Wermund in undisturbed security maintained a prolonged
and steady peace at home. He had no children during the
prime of his life, but in his old age, by a belated gift of
fortune, he begat a son, UfFe, though all the years which had
glided by had raised him up no offspring. ThisUffe surpassed
all of his age in stature, but in his early youth was supposed to
have so dull and foolish a spirit as to be useless for all affairs
public or private. For from his first years he never used to
play or make merry, but was so void of all human pleasure
that he kept his lips sealed in a perennial silence, and utterly
restrained his austere visage from the business of laughter.
But though through the years of his youth he was reputed
for an utter fool, he afterwards left that despised estate and
became famous, turning out as great a pattern of wisdom and

Hook FOtm 131

hardihood as he had been a picture of stagnation. His [107]
father, seeing him such a simpleton, got him for a wife the
daughter of Frowin, the governor of the men of Sleswik ;
thinking that by his alliance with so famous a man Uffe would
receive help which would serve him well in administering the
realm. Frowin had two sons, Ket and Wig, who were youths
of most brilliant parts, and their excellence, not less than that
of Frowin, Wermund destined to the future advantage of his
son.

At this time the King of Sweden was Athisl, a man of
notable fame and energy. After defeating his neighbours
far around, he was loth to leave the renown won by his
prowess to be tarnished in slothful ease, and by constant and
zealous practice brought many novel exercises into vogue.
For one thing he had a daily habit of walking alone girt with
splendid armour : in part because he knew that nothing was
more excellent in warfare than the continual practice of arms ;
and in part that he might swell his glory by ever following
this pursuit. Self-confidence claimed as large a place in this
man as thirst for fame. Nothing, he thought, could be so
terrible as to make him afraid that it would daunt his stout
heart by its opposition. He carried his arms into Denmark, and
challenged Frowin to battle near Sleswik. The armies routed
one another with vast slaughter, and it happened that the
generals came to engage in person, so that they conducted the
affair like a duel ; and, in addition to the public issues of the
war, the fight was like a personal conflict. For both of them
longed with equal earnestness for an issue of the combat by
which they might exhibit their valour, not by the help of their
respective sides, but by a trial of personal strength. The end
was that, though the blows rained thick on either side, Athisl
prevailed and overthrew Frowin, and won a public victory as
well as a duel, breaking up and shattering the Danish ranks
in all directions. When he returned to Sweden, he not only
counted the slaying of Frowin among the trophies of his
valour, but even bragged of it past measure, so ruining the
glory of the deed by his wantonness of tongue. For it is some-

Jv2

132 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

times handsomer for deeds of valour to be shrouded in the
modesty of silence than to be blazoned in wanton talk.

Wermund raised the sons of Frowin to honours of the same
rank as their father's : a kindness which was only due to the
children of his friend who had died for the country. This
prompted Athisl to carry the war again into Denmark. Em-
boldened therefore by his previous battle, he came back, bring-
[108] ing with him not only no slender and feeble force, but all the
flower of the valour of Sweden, thinking he would seize the
supremacy of all Denmark. Ket, the son of Frowin, sent
Folk, his chief officer, to take this news to Wermund, who
then chanced to be in his house Jellinge.1 Folk found the
king feasting with his friends, and did his errand, admonishing
him that here was the long-wished-for chance of war at hand,
and pressing itself upon the wishes of Wermund, to whom
was given an immediate chance of victory and the free choice
of a speedy and honourable triumph. Great and unexpected
were the sweets of good fortune, so long sighed for, and now
granted to him by this lucky event. For Athisl had come
encompassed with countless forces of the Swedes, just as
though in his firm assurance he had made sure of victory ; and
since the enemy who was going to fight would doubtless pre-
fer death to flight, this chance of war gave them a fortunate
opportunity to take vengeance for their late disaster.

Wermund, declaring that he had performed his mission
nobly and bravely, ordered that he should take some little
refreshment of the banquet, since " far-faring ever hurt
tasters". When Folk said that he had no kind of leisure to
take food, he begged him to take a draught to quench his
thirst. This was given him ; and Wermund also bade him
keep the cup, which was of gold, saying that men who were
weary with the heat of wayfaring found it handier to take up
the water in a goblet than in the palms, and that it was better
to use a cup for drinking than the hand. When the king
accompanied his great gift with such gracious words, the
young man, overjoyed at both, promised that, before the
1 Jellinge] Lat. Idlunga, Icel. Jcddngr.

ROOK FOUR. 133

king should see him turn and flee, he would take a draught
of his own blood to the full measure of the liquor he had
drunk.

With this doughty vow Wermund accounted himself well
repaid, and got somewhat more joy from giving the boon than
the soldier had from gaining it. Nor did he find that Folk's
talk was braver than his fighting.

For, when battle had begun, it came to pass that amidst divers
charges of the troops Folk and Athisl met and fought a long
while together ; and that the host of the Swedes, following the
fate of their captain, took to flight, and Athisl also was wounded
and fled from the battle to his ships. And when Folk, dazed
with wounds and toil, and moreover steeped alike in heat and
toil and thirst, had ceased to follow the rout of the enemy,
then, in order to refresh himself, he caught his own blood in [109]
his helmet, and put it to his lips to drain : by which deed he
gloriously requited the king's gift of the cup. Wermund, who
chanced to see this, praised him warmly for fulfilling his vow.
Folk answered, that a noble vow ought to be strictly per-
formed to the end : a speech wherein he showed no less
approval of his own deed than Wermund.

Now, while the conquerors had laid down their arms, and, as
is usual after a battle, were exchanging diverse talk with one
another, Ket, the governor of the men of Sleswik, declared that
it was a matter of great marvel to him how it was that Athisl,
though difficulties strewed his path, had contrived an oppor-
tunity to escape, especially as he had been the first and fore-
most in the battle, but last of all in the retreat ; and though
there had not been one of the enemy whose fall was so
vehemently desired by the Danes. Wermund rejoined that
he should know that there were four kinds of warrior to be
distinguished in every army. The fighters of the first order
were those who, tempering valour with forbearance, were
keen to slay those who resisted, but were ashamed to bear
hard on fugitives. For these were the men who had won
undoubted proofs of prowess by veteran experience in arms,
and who found their glory not in the flight of the conquered,

134 SAXO GRAMMATTCTS.

but in overcoming those whom they had to conquer. Then
there was a second kind of warriors, who were endowed with
stout frame and spirit, but with no jot of compassion, and who
raged with savage and indiscriminate carnage against the
backs as well as the breasts of their foes. Now of this sort
were the men carried away by hot and youthful blood, and
striving to grace their first campaign with good auguries of
warfare. They burned as hotly with the glow of youth as
with the glow for glory, and thus rushed headlong into right
or wrong with equal recklessness. There was also the third
kind, who, wavering betwixt shame and fear, could not go
forward for terror, while shame barred retreat. Of dis-
tinguished blood, but only notable for their usetess stature,
they crowded the ranks with numbers and not with strength,
smote the foe more with their shadows than with their arms,
and were only counted among the throng of warriors as so
many bodies to be seen. These men were lords of great
riches, but excelled more in birth than bravery ; hungry for life,
because owning great possessions, they were forced to yield to
the sway of cowardice rather than nobleness. There were
others, again, who brought show to the war, and not substance,
and who, foisting themselves into the rear of their comrades,
were the first to fly and the last to fight. One sure token of
[no] fear betrayed their feebleness; for they always deliberately
sought excuses to shirk, and followed with timid and slu^oish
advance in the rear of the fighters. It must be supposed,
therefore, that these were the reasons why the king had escaped
safely; for when he fled he was not pursued pertinaciously by
the men of the front rank ; since these made it their business
to preserve the victory, not to arrest the conquered, and
massed their wedges, in order that the fresh- won victory
might be duly and sufficiently guarded, and attain the fulness
of triumph.

Now the second class of fighters, whose desire was to cut
down everything in their way, had left Athisl unscathed, from
lack not of will but of opportunity ; for they had lacked the
chance to hurt him rather than the daring. Moreover, though

BOOK FOUR. 135

the men of the third kind, who frittered away the very hour
of battle by wandering about in a flurried fashion, and also
hampered the success of their own side, had had their chance
of harming the king, they yet lacked courage to assail him.
In this way Vermund satisfied the dull amazement of Ket,
and declared that he had set forth and expounded the true
reasons of the king's safe escape.

After this Athisl fled back to Sweden, still wantonly bragging
of the slaughter of Frowin, and constantly boasting the memory
of his exploit with prolix recital of his deeds ; not that he bore
calmly the shame of his defeat, but that he might salve the
wound of his recent flight by the honours of his ancient victory.
This naturally much angered Ket and Wig, and they swore a
vow to unite in avenging their father. Thinking that they could
hardly accomplish this in open war, they took an equipment
of lighter armament, and went to Sweden alone. Then,
entering a wood in which they had learnt by report that the
king used to take his walks unaccompanied, they hid their
weapons. Then they talked long with Athisl, giving them-
selves out as deserters ; and when he asked them what was
their native country, they said they were men of Sleswik, and
had left their land "for manslaughter". The king thought
that this statement referred not to their vow to commit the
crime, but to the guilt of some crime already committed.
For they desired by this deceit to foil his inquisitiveness, so
that the truthfulness of the statement mipdit baffle the wit of
the questioner, and their true answer, being covertly shadowed
forth in a fiction, might inspire in him a belief that it was
false.1 For famous men of old thought lying a most shameful
thing. Then Athisl said he would like to know whom the
Danes believed to be the slayer of Frowin. Ket replied that
there was a doubt as to who ought to claim so illustrious a

1 Belief that it was false] ophdonem incuteret falsitatis. So Saxo,
perhaps with some confusion of expression. He must mean "inspire
him with a false belief", i.e., delude him about their purpose by letting
him take the words in his own sense. Compare the scruples of Amleth,
Bk. in, pp. 110, 1X0.

136 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

[in] deed, especially as the general testimony was that he had
perished on the field of battle. Athisl answered that it was
idle to credit others with the death of Frowin, which he, and
he alone, had accomplished in mutual combat. Soon he asked
whether Frowin had left any children. Ket answering that
two sons of his were alive, he said that he would be very glad
to learn their age and stature. Ket replied that they were
almost of the same size as themselves in body, alike in years,
and much resembling them in tallness. Then Athisl said :
" If the mind and the valour of their sire were theirs, a
bitter tempest would break upon me." Then he asked whether
those men constantly spoke of the slaying of their father.
Ket rejoined that it was idle to go on talking and talking
about a thing that could not be softened by any remedy,
and declared that it was no good to harp with constant
vexation on an inexpiable ill. By saying this he showed that
threats ought not to anticipate vengeance.

And when he saw that the king regularly walked apart

alone in order to train his strength, he took up his arms,

and with his brother followed the king as he walked in front

of them. Athisl, when he saw them, stood his ground on the

sand, thinking it shameful to avoid threateners. Then they

said that they would take vengeance for his slaying of Frowin,

especially as he avowed with so many arrogant vaunts that he

alone was his slayer. But he told them to take heed lest

while they sought to compass their revenge, they should be so

foolhardy as to engage him with their feeble and powerless

hand, and while desiring the destruction of another, should

find they had fallen themselves. Thus they would cut off

their goodly promise by over-hasty thirst for glory. Let them

then spare their youth and spare their promise ; let them not

be seized so lightly with a desire to perish. Therefore let

them suffer him to requite with money the trespass done

them in their father's death, and account it great honour

tli at they would be credited with forcing so mighty a chief

to pay a fine, and in a manner with shaking him with

overmastering fear. Yet he said he advised them thus, not

BOOK FOUR. 137

because lie was really terrified, but because he was moved
with compassion for their youth. Ket replied that it was idle
to waste time in beating so much about the bush, and trying to
sap their righteous longing for revenge by an offer of pelf.
So he bade him come forward and make trial with him in single
combat of whatever strength he had. He himself would do
without the aid of his brother, and would fight with his own
strength, lest it should appear a shameful and unequal combat :
for the ancients held it to be unfair, and also infamous, for
two men to fight against one ; and a victory gained by this
kind of fighting they did not account honourable, but more [112]
like a disgrace than a glory. Indeed, it was considered not
only a poor, but a most shameful exploit for two men to
overpower one.

But Athisl was filled with such assurance that he bade
them both assail him at once, declaring that if he could not
cure them of the desire to fight, he would at least give
them the chance of fighting more safely. But Ket shrank so
much from this favour, that he swore he would accept death
sooner : for he thought that the terms of battle thus offered
would be turned into a reproach to himself. So he engaged
hotly with Athisl, who, desirous to fight him in a forbearing
fashion, merely thrust lightly with his blade and struck upon
his shield ; thus guarding his own safety with more hardihood
than success. When he had done this some while, he advised
him to take his brother to share in his enterprise, and not be
ashamed to ask for the help of another hand, since his unaided
efforts were useless. If he refused, said Athisl, he should not
be spared ; then, making good his threats, he assailed him with
all his might. But Ket received him with so sturdy a stroke
of his sword, that it split the helmet and forced its way down
upon the head. Stung by the wound (for a stream of blood
flowed from his poll), he attacked Ket with a shower of nimble
blows, and drove him to his knees. Wig, leaning more to
personal love than to general usage,1 could not bear the sight,

1 General usage] publicae consuetudini : namely, the rule of combat
that two should not fight against one.

138 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

but made affection conquer shame, and, attacking Athisl, chose
rather to defend the weakness of his brother than to look on at
it. But he won more infamy than glory by the deed. In help-
ing his brother he had violated the appointed conditions of the
duel : and the help that he gave him was thought more useful
than honourable. For on the one scale he inclined to the side of
disgrace, and on the other to that of affection.1 Thereupon they
perceived themselves that their killing of Athisl had been more
swift than glorious. Yet, not to hide the deed from the
common people, they cut off his head, slung his body on a
horse, took it out of the wood, and handed it over to the
dwellers in a village near, announcing that the sons of Frowin
had taken vengeance upon Athisl, King of the Swedes, for
the slaying of their father. Boasting of such a victory as
this, they were received by Wermund with the highest
honours ; for he thought they had done a most useful deed,
and he preferred to regard the glory of being rid of a rival
with more attention than the infamy of committing an out-
rage. Nor did he judge the killing of a tyrant was in any
[113] wise akin to shame. It passed into a proverb among
foreigners, that the death of the king had broken down the
ancient principle of combat.

When Wermund was losing his sight by infirmity of age, the
King of Saxony, thinking that Denmark lacked a leader, sent
envoys ordering him to surrender to his charge the kingdom
which he held beyond the due term of life ; lest, if he thirsted
to hold sway too long, he should strip his country of laws and
defence. For how could he be reckoned a king, whose spirit
was darkened with age, and his eyes with blindness not less
black and awful ? If he refused, but yet had a son who
would dare to accept a challenge and fight with his son, let
him agree that the victor should possess the realm. But if he
approved neither offer, let him learn that he must be dealt with
by weapons and not by warnings ; and in the end he must

1 Of affection] Again a certain confusion of thought. Saxo must
refer, not, as his language would imply, to the contending motives in
Wig's mind, but to the balance of praise or blame due to his action,

HOOK FOUR. 139

unwillingly surrender what he was too proud at first to yield
uncompelled. Wermund, shaken by deep sighs, answered
that it was too insolent to sting him with these taunts upon
his years ; for he had passed no timorous youth, nor shrunk
from battle, that age should bring him to this extreme misery.
It was equally unfitting to cast in his teeth the infirmity of his
blindness : for it was common for a loss of this kind to
accompany such a time of life as his, and it seemed a calamity
fitter for sympathy than for taunts. It were juster to fix the
blame on the impatience of the King of Saxony, whom it
would have beseemed to wait for the old man's death, and
not demand his throne; for it was somewhat better to succeed
to the dead than to rob the living. Yet, that he might not
be thought to make over the honours of his ancient freedom,
like a madman, to the possession of another, he would accept
the challenge with his own hand. The envoys answered that
they knew that their king would shrink from the mockery
of fighting a blind man, for such an absurd mode of combat was
thought more shameful than honourable. It would surely be
better to settle the affair by means of their offspring on either
side. The Danes were in consternation, and at a sudden loss
for a reply : but Uffe, who happened to be there with the rest,
craved his father's leave to answer ; and suddenly the dumb
as it were spake. When Wermund asked who had thus
begged leave to speak, and the attendants said that it was
Uffe, he declared that it was enough that the insolent foreigner
should jeer at the pangs of his misery, without those
of his own household vexino- him with the same wanton
effrontery. But the courtiers persistently averred that this
man was Uffe ; and the king said : " He is free, whosoever he
be, to say out what he thinks." Then said Uffe, " that it was [i 14]
idle for their king to covet a realm which could rely not
only on the service of its own ruler, but also on the arms
and wisdom of most valiant nobles. Moreover, the king did
not lack a son nor the kingdom an heir ; and they were to
know that he had made up his mind to fight not only the
son of their king, but also, at the same time, whatsoever man

140 SAXO GRAMMATICU8.

the prince should elect as his comrade out of the bravest of
their nation."

The envoys laughed when they heard this, thinking it idle
lip-courage. Instantly the ground for the battle was agreed
on, and a fixed time appointed. But the bystanders were so
amazed by the strangeness of Uffe's speaking and challenging,
that one can scarce say if they were more astonished at his
words or at his assurance.

But on the departure of the envoys Wermund praised him
who had made the answer, because he had proved his confidence
in his own valour by challenging not one only, but two ; and
said that he would sooner quit his kingdom for him, whoever
he was, than for an insolent foe. But when one and all
testified that he who with lofty self-confidence had spurned
the arrogance of the envoys was his own son, he bade him come
nearer to him, wishing to test with his hands what he could
not with his eyes. Then he carefully felt his body, and found
by the size of his limbs and by his features that he was his
son : and then began to believe their assertions, and to ask him
why he had taken pains to hide so sweet an eloquence with
such careful dissembling, and had borne to live through so long
a span of life without utterance or any intercourse of talk,
so as to let men think him utterly incapable of speech, and a
born mute. He replied that he had been hitherto satisfied
with the protection of his father, that he had not needed the
use of his voice until he saw the wisdom of his own land
hard pressed by the glibness of a foreigner. The king also
asked him why he had chosen to challenge two rather than
one. He said he had desired this mode of combat in order
that the death of King Athisl, which, havino- been caused bv
two men, was a standing reproach to the Danes, might be
balanced by the exploit of one, and that a new ensample
of valour might erase the ancient record of their disgrace.
Fresh honour, he said, would thus obliterate the guilt of their
old dishonour.

Wermund said that his son had judged all things rightly, and
bade him first learn the use of arms, since he had been little

HOOK FOUR. 141

accustomed to them. When they were ottered to Utle, he split
the narrow links of the mail-coats by the mighty girth of his
chest, nor could any be found large enough to hold him
properly. For he was too hugely built to be able to use the
arms of any other man. At last, when he was bursting even [115]
his father's coat of mail by the violent compression of his body,
Wermund ordered it to be cut away on the left side and
patched with a buckle; thinking it mattered little if the side
guarded by the shield were exposed to the sword. He also
told him to be most careful in fixing on a sword which he
could use safely. Several were offered him ; but Uffe, grasping
the hilt, shattered them one after the other into flinders by
shaking them, and not a single blade was of so hard a temper
but at the first blow he broke it into many pieces. But the
king had a sword of extraordinary sharpness, called " Skrep",
which at a single blow of the smiter struck straight through
and cleft asunder any obstacle whatsoever ; nor would aught
be hard enough to check its edge when driven home. The
king, loth to leave this for the benefit of posterity, and greatly
grudging others the use of it, had buried it deep in the earth,
meaning, since he had no hopes of his son's improvement, to
debar everyone else from using it. But when he was now
asked whether he had a sword worthy of the strength of UfFe,
he said that he had one which, if he could recognise the lie
of the ground and find what he had consigned long ago to earth,
he could offer him as worthy of his bodily strength. Then he
bade them lead him into a field, and kept questioning his
companions over all the ground. At last he recognised the
tokens, found the spot where he had buried the sword, drew
it out of its hole, and handed it to his son. Uffe saw it was
frail with great age and rusted away ; and, not daring to strike
with it, asked if he must prove this one also like the rest,
declaring that he must try its temper before the battle
ought to be fought. Wermund replied that if this sword were
shattered by mere brandishing, there was nothing left which
could serve for such strength as his. He must, therefore, for-
bear from the act, whose issue remained so doubtful.

142 8A&0 GKAMMA^tCtjS.

So they repaired to the field of battle as agreed. It is fast
encompassed by the waters of the river Eider, which roll
between, and forbid any approach save by ship. Hither Uffe
went unattended, while the Prince of Saxony was followed by
a champion famous for his strength. Dense crowds on either
side, eager to see, thronged each winding bank, and all bent
their eyes1 upon this scene. Wermund planted himself on the
end of the bridge, determined to perish in the waters if
defeat were the lot of his son : he would rather share the
[116] fall of his own flesh and blood than behold, with heart full of
anguish, the destruction of his own country. Both the
warriors assaulted Uffe ; but, distrusting his sword, he parried
the blows of both with his shield, being determined to wait
patiently and see which of the two he must beware of most
needfully, so that he might reach that one at all events with
a single stroke of his blade. Wermund, thinking that his
feebleness was at fault, that he took the blows so patiently,
dragged himself little by little, in his longing for death,
forward to the western edge of the bridge, meaning to fling
himself down and perish, should all be over with his son.
Fortune shielded the old father who loved so passionately,
for Uffe told the prince to engage with him more briskly, and
to do some deed of prowess worthy of his famous race ; lest
the lowborn squire should seem braver than the prince.
Then, in order to try the bravery of the champion, he bade
him not skulk timorously at his master's heels, but requite
by noble deeds of combat the trust placed in him by his
prince, who had chosen him to be his single partner in the
battle. The other complied, and when shame drove him to
fight at close quarters, Uffe clove him through with the
first stroke of his blade. The sound revived Wermund, who
said that he heard the sword of his son, and asked :f on what
particular part he had dealt the blow ? " Then the retainers
answered that he had gone through no one limb, but the
man's whole frame; whereat he drew back from the precipice

1 Bent their eyes] oculos inferentibus. So ed.pr.: St. and succeeding
editors alter to inserentitnis.

fcOOK Folli. U3

and came again on the bridge, longing now as passionately
to live as he had just wished to die. Then Uffe, wishing to
destroy his remaining foe after the fashion of the first, incited
the prince with vehement words to offer some sacrifice by way
of requital to the shade of the servant slain in his cause.
Drawing him by those appeals, and warily noting the right
spot to plant his blow, he turned the other edge of his sword
to the front, fearing that the thin side of his blade was too
frail for his strength, and smote with a piercing stroke
through the prince's body. When Wermund heard it, he said
that the sound of his sword Skrep had reached his ear for the
second time. Then, when the judges announced that his son
had killed both enemies, he burst into tears from excess of joy.
Thus gladness bedewed the cheeks which sorrow could not
moisten. So while the Saxons, sad and shamefaced, bore their
champions to burial with bitter shame, the Danes welcomed
Uffe and bounded for joy. Then no more was heard of the [117]
disgrace of the murder of Athisl, and there was an end of
the taunts of the Saxons.

Thus the realm of Saxony was transferred to the Danes, and
Uffe, after his father, undertook its government ; and he, who
had not been thought equal to administering a single kingdom
properly, was now appointed to manage both. Most men have
called him Olaf, and he has won the name of " the Gentle" for
his forbearing spirit. His later deeds, lost in antiquity,
have lacked formal record. But it may well be supposed
that when their beginnings were so notable, their sequel was
glorious. I am so brief in considering his doings, because the
lustre of the famous men of our nation has been lost to
memory and praise by the lack of writings. But if by good
luck our land had in old time been endowed with the Latin
tongue, there would have been countless volumes to read of the
exploits of the Danes.

Uffe was succeeded by his son Dan, who carried his arms
against foreigners, and increased his sovereignty with many
a trophy ; but he tarnished the brightness of the glory he
had won by foul and abominable presumption ; falling so far

144 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

away from the honour of his famous father, who surpassed
all others in modesty, that he contrariwise was puffed up and
proudly exalted in spirit, so that he scorned all other men.
He also squandered the goods of his father on infamies, as well
as his own winnings from the spoils of foreign nations ; and he
devoured in expenditure on luxuries the wealth which should
have ministered to his royal estate. Thus do sons sometimes,
like monstrous births, degenerate from their ancestors.

After this Hugleik was king, who is said to have defeated
in battle at sea Homod and Hogrim, the despots of Sweden.

To him succeeded Frode, surnamed the Vigorous,1 who
bore out his name by the strength of his body and mind.
He destroyed in war ten captains of Norway, and finally
approached the island2 which afterwards had its name from
him, meaning to attack the king himself last of all. This king,
Froger, was in two ways very distinguished, being notable in
arms no less than in wealth ; and graced his sovereignty with
the deeds of a champion, being as rich in prizes for bodily
feats as in the honours of rank. According to some, he was
the son of Odin, and when he begged the immortal gods to
grant him a boon, received the privilege that no man should
conquer him, save he who at the time of the conflict could catch
up in his hand the dust lying beneath Froger's feet. When
[118] Frode found that Heaven had endowed this king with such
might, he challenged him to a duel, meaning to try to outwit
the favour of the gods. So at first, feigning inexperience, he
besought the king for a lesson in fighting, knowing (he said)
his skill and experience in the same. The other, rejoicing that
his enemy not only yielded to his pretensions, but even made
him a request, said that he was wise to submit his youthful
mind to an old man's wisdom ; for his unscarred face and his
brow, ploughed by no marks of battle, showed that his know-
ledge of such matters was but slender. So he marked oft" on

1 The Vigorous] Vcgetus. Saxo's equivalent for hirvn fiaekni, "the
Doughty."

2 The island] There is an is'e named Fiodo, but from what Frode
its riamtj is derived is uncertain.

BOOK FOUR. 145

the ground two square spaces with sides an ell long, opposite
one another, meaning to begin by instructing him about the
use of these plots. When they had been marked off, each took
the side assigned to him. Then Frode asked Froger to
exchange arms and ground with him, and the request was
readily granted. For Froger was excited with the flashing of
his enemy's arms, because Frode wore a gold-hilted sword, a
breastplate equally bright, and a headpiece most brilliantly
adorned in the same manner. So Frode caught up some dust
from the ground whence Froger had gone, and thought that he
had been granted an omen of victory. Nor was he deceived
in his presage ; for he straightway slew Froger, and by
this petty trick won the greatest name for bravery ; for he
gained by craft what had been permitted to no man's strength
before.

After him Dan came to the throne. When he was in the
twelfth year of his age, he was wearied by the insolence of the
embassies, which commanded him either to fight the Saxons
or to pay them tribute. Ashamed, he preferred fighting to
payment, and was moved to die stoutly rather than live a
coward. So he elected to fight; and the warriors of the Danes
filled the Elbe with such a throng of vessels, that the decks
of the ships lashed together made it quite easy to cross, as
though along a continuous bridge. The end was that the
King of Saxony had to accept the very terms he was demand-
ing from the Danes.

After Dan, Fridleif, surnamed the Swift, assumed the
sovereignty. During his reign, Huyrwil, the lord of Oland,1
made a league with the Danes and attacked Norway. No
small fame was added to his deeds by the defeat of the amazon
Rusila, who aspired with military ardour to prowess in battle :
but he gained manly glory over a female foe. Also he took
into his alliance, on account of their deeds of prowess, her
five partners, the children of Finn, named Brodd, Bild, Bug,
Fanning, and Gunholm. Their confederacy emboldened him [119]

1 Oland] Holandia. M. thinks this is the island in Liim-fiord. It
might be the isle of Oland, off Sweden.

146 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

to break the treaty which he made with the Danes ; and the
treachery of the violation made it all the more injurious, for
the Danes could not believe that he could turn so suddenly
from a friend into an enemy ; so easily can some veer from
goodwill into hate. I suppose that this man inaugurated
the morals of our own day, for we do not account lying and
treachery as sinful and sordid. When Buyiwil attacked
the southern side of Zealand, Friclleif assailed him in the
harbour which was afterwards called by Huyrwil's name.1
In this battle the soldiers, in their rivalry for glory, engaged
with such bravery that very few tied to escape peril, and both
armies were utterly destroyed ; nor did the victory fall to
either side, where both were enveloped in an equal ruin. So
much more desirous were they all of glory than of life. So the
survivors of Huyrwil's army, in order to keep united, had
the remnants of their fleet lashed together at night. But,
in the same night, Bild and Brodd cut the cables with which
the ships were joined, and stealthily severed their own vessels
from the rest, thus yielding to their own terrors by deserting
their brethren, and obeying the impulses of fear rather than
fraternal love. When daylight returned, Fridleif, finding that
after the great massacre of their friends only Huyrwil, Gun-
holm, Bug, and Fanning were left, determined to fight them all
single-handed, so that the mangled relics of his fleet might not
again have to be imperilled. Besides his innate courage, a
shirt of steel-defying mail gave him confidence ; a garb which
he used to wear in all public battles and in duels, as a pre-
servative of his life. He accomplished his end with as much
fortune as courage, and ended the battle successfully. For,
after slaying Huyrwil, Bug, and Fanning, he killed Gunholm,
who was accustomed to blunt the blade of an enemy with
spells, by a shower of blows from his hilt. But while he
gripped the blade too eagerly, the sinews, being cut and

1 The harbour which was afterwards called by Huyrwil's name] M.
says that there is a small harbour of this name on the south coast of
Zealand.

BOOK FOUR. 147

disabled, contracted the fingers upon the palm, and cramped
them with life-long curvature.

While Fridleif was besieging Dublin, a town in Ireland, and
saw from the strength of the walls that there was no chance of
storming them, he imitated the shrewd wit of Hadding,1 and
ordered fire to be shut up in wicks and fastened to the
wings of swallowTs. When the birds got back in their own
nesting-place, the dwellings suddenly flared up ; and while the
citizens all ran up to quench them, and paid more heed to [120]
abating the fire than to looking after the enemy, Fridleif took
Dublin. After this he lost his soldiers in Britain, and, thinking
that he would find it hard to get back to the coast, he set up
the corpses of the slain2 and stationed them in line, thus pro-
ducing so nearly the look of his original host that its great
reverse seemed not to have lessened the show of it a whit.
By this deed he not only took out of the enemy all heart for
fighting, but inspired them with the desire to make their
escape.

1 Shrewd wit of Hadding] See on Bk. 1, p. 30.

2 Set up the corpses of the slain] Cp. Amleth's device, above, p. 128.

END OF BOOK FOUB.

BOOK FIVE.

[121] After the death of Fridleif, his son Frode, aged seven, was
elected in his stead by the unanimous decision of the Danes.
But they held an assembly first, and judged that the minority
of the king should be taken in charge by guardians, lest the
sovereignty should pass away1 owing to the boyishness of
the ruler. For one and all paid such respect to the name
and memory of Fridleif, that the royalty was bestowed on
his son despite his tender years. So a selection was made,
and the brothers Westmar and Koll were summoned to the
charge of bringing up the king. Isulf also and Agg and eight
other men of mark were not only entrusted with the guardian-
ship of the king, but also granted authority to administer the
realm under him. These men were rich in strength and
courage, and endowed with ample gifts of mind as well as
of body. Thus the state of the Danes was governed with
the aid of regents until the time when the king should be
a man.

The wife of Koll was Gotwar, who used to paralyse the
most eloquent and fluent men by her glib and extraordinary
insolence; for she was potent in wrangling, and full of resource
in all kinds of disputation. Words were her weapons; and
she not only trusted in questions, but was armed with stubborn
answers. No man could subdue this woman, who could not
light, but who found darts in her tongue instead. Some she
would argue down with a flood of impudent words, while
others she seemed to entangle in the meshes of her quibbles,

1 Sovereignty should pass away] rerum exciderct simtma. So ed. pr. :
St. and later editors alter, not under absolute necessity, to exciderent,
"lest they should fall from the supremacy".

BOOK FIVE. 149

and strangle in the noose of her sophistries ; so nimble a wit [122]
had the woman. Moreover, she was very strong, either in
making or cancelling a bargain, and the sting of her tongue
was the secret of her power in both. She was clever both at
making and at breaking leagues ; thus she had two sides to
her tongue, and used it for either purpose.

Westmar had twelve sons, three of whom had the same
name — Grep — in common. These three men were conceived
at once and delivered at one birth, and their common name
declared their simultaneous origin. They were exceedingly
skilful swordsmen and boxers. Frode1 had also given the
supremacy of the sea to Odd; who was very closely related to
the king. Koll rejoiced in an offspring of three sons. At this
time a certain son of Frode's brother held the chief command
of naval affairs for the protection of the country.1 Now the
king had a sister, Gunwar, surnamed the Fair because of her
surpassing beauty. The sons of Westmar and Koll, being
ungrown in years and bold in spirit, let their courage become
recklessness, and devoted their guilt-stained minds to foul and
degraded orgies.

Their behaviour was so outrageous and uncontrollable that
they ravished other men's brides and daughters, and seemed
to have outlawed chastity and banished it to the stews. Nay,
they defiled the couches of matrons, and did not even refrain
from the bed of virgins. A man's own chamber was no safety
to him : there was scarce a spot in the land but bore traces of
their lust. Husbands were vexed with fear, and wives with
insult to their persons : and to these wrongs folk bowed. No
ties were respected, and forced embraces became a common
thing. Love was prostituted, all reverence for marriage ties
died out, and lust was greedily run after. And the reason of

1 Frode had also . . . protection of the country] The sentence "Koll
rejoiced", etc., is evidently misplaced. M. thinks the sentences, "Frode
had also ... to the king", interpolated glosses. It is unnatural to
repeat that Frode's nephew was in command of the sea ; for this man,
as we learn from his dealings with Erik, below, p. 156 seq., was evidently
Odd himself.

150 SAXO GBAMMATICUS.

all this was the peace; for men's bodies lacked exercise and
were enervated in the ease so propitious to vices. At last
the eldest of those who shared the name of Grep, wishing to
regulate and steady his promiscuous wantonness, ventured to
seek a haven for his vagrant amours in the love of the king's
sister. Yet he did amiss. For though it was right that
his vagabond and straying delights should be bridled by
modesty, yet it was audacious for a man of the people
to covet the child of a king. She, much fearing the impu-
dence of her wooer, and wishing to be safer from outrage,
went into a fortified building. Thirty attendants were
given to her, to keep guard and constant watch over her
person.

Now the comrades of Frode, sadly lacking the help of women
in the matter of the wear of their garments, inasmuch as they
had no means of patching or of repairing rents, advised and
[123] urged the king to marry. At first he alleged his tender years
as an excuse, but in the end yielded to the persistent requests
of his people. And when he carefully inquired of his advisers
who would be a fit wife for him, they all praised the daughter
of the King of the Huns beyond the rest. When the question
was pushed, what reason Frode had for objecting to her, he
replied that he had heard from his father that it was not
expedient for kings to seek alliance far afield, or to demand
love save from neighbours. When Gotwar heard this she
knew that the king's resistance to his friends was wily.
Wishing to establish his wavering spirit, and strengthen the
courage of his weakling soul, she said : " Bridals are for young
men, but the tomb awaits the old. The steps of youth go
forward in desires and in fortune ; but old age declines help-
less to the sepulchre. Hope attends youth ; age is bowed with
hopeless decay. The fortune of young men increases ; it will
never leave unfinished what it begins." Respecting her words,
he begged her to undertake the management of the suit.
But she refused, pleading her age as her pretext, and declaring
herself too stricken in years to bear so difficult a commission.
The king saw that a bribe was wanted, and, proffering a golden

BOOK FIVE. 151

necklace, promised it as the reward of her embassy. For the
necklace had links1 consisting of studs, and figures of kings
interspersed in bas-relief, which could be now separated and
now drawn together by pulling a thread inside : a gewgaw
devised more for luxury than use. Frode also ordered that
Westmar and Koll, with their sons, should be summoned to go
on the same embassy, thinking that their cunning would avoid
the shame of a rebuff.

They went with Gotwar, and were entertained by the King
of the Huns at a three days' banquet, ere they uttered the
purpose of their embassy. For it was customary of old
thus to welcome guests. When the feast had been prolonged
three days, the princess came forth to make herself pleasant
to the envoys with a most courteous address, and her blithe
presence added not a little to the festal delights of the ban-
queters. And as the drink went faster Westmar revealed his
purpose in due course, in a very merry declaration, wishing to
sound the mind of the maiden in talk of a friendly sort. And,
in order not to inflict on himself a rebuff, he spoke in a mirth-
ful vein, and broke the ground of his mission, by venturing to
make up a sportive speech amid the applause of the revellers.
The princess said that she disdained Frode because he lacked
honour and glory. For in days of old no men were thought
fit for the hand of high-born women but those who had won [124]
some great prize of glory by the lustre of their admirable
deeds. Sloth Avas the worst of vices in a suitor, and nothing
was more of a reproach in one who sought marriage than the
lack of fame. A harvest of glory, and that alone, could bring
wealth in everything else. Maidens admired in their wooers
not so much good looks as deeds nobly done. So the envoys,
flagging and despairing of their wish, left the further conduct

1 The necklace had links . . .] nexilia bullarum caelamina inter-
sitaque regum simulacra, lit. "bas-reliefs of studs or beads linked together,
and effigies of kings interposed". This appears to mean that some, perhaps
all, of the links were studs with medals of kings upon them. M. (ed. 1839)
says that similar specimens, with the strings Saxo mentions, are in the
Museum in Copenhagen.

152 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

of the affair to the wisdom of Gotwar, who tried to subdue
the maiden not only with words but with love-philtres, and
began to declare that Frode used his left hand as well as his
right, and was a quick and skilful swimmer and fighter. Also
by the drink which she gave she changed the strictness of the
maiden to desire, and replaced her vanished anger with love
and delight. Then she bade Westmar, Koll, and their sons go
to the king and urge their mission afresh ; and finally, should
they find him froward, to anticipate a rebuff by a challenge to
fight.

So Westmar entered the palace with his men-at-arms, and
said : " Now thou must needs either consent to our entreaties,
or meet in battle us who entreat thee. We would rather die
nobly than go back with our mission unperformed : lest,
foully repulsed and foiled of our purpose, we should take home
disgrace where we hoped to win honour. If thou refuse thy
daughter, consent to fight : thou must needs grant one thing
or the other. We wish either to die or to have our prayers
heard. Something — sorrow if not joy — we will get from
thee. Frode will be better pleased to hear of our slaughter
than of our repulse." Without another word, he threatened to
aim a blow at the king's throat with his sword. The king-
replied that it was unseemly for the royal majesty to meet an
inferior in rank in level combat, and unfit that those of unequal
station should fight as equals. But when Westmar persisted
in urging him to fight, he at last bade him find out what the
real mind of the maiden was ; for in old time men gave women
who were to marry, free choice of a husband. For the king
was embarrassed, and hung vacillating betwixt shame and fear
of battle. Thus Westmar, having been referred to the thoughts
of the girl's heart, and knowing that every woman is as
changeable in purpose as she is fickle in soul, proceeded to
fulfil his task all the more confidently because he knew how
[125] mutable the wishes of maidens were. His confidence in his
charge was increased and his zeal encouraged, because she
had both a maiden's simplicity, which was left to its own
counsels, and a woman's freedom of choice, which must be

BOOK FIVE. 153

wheedled with the most delicate and mollifying flatteries :
and thus she would be not only easy to lead away, but even
hasty in compliance. But her father went after the envoys,
that he might see more surely into his daughter's mind. She
had already been drawn by the stealthy working of the
draught to love her suitor, and answered that the promise of
Frode, rather than his present renown, had made her expect
much of his nature : since he was sprung from so famous a
father, and every nature commonly answered to its origin.
The youth therefore had pleased her by her regard ] of his
future, rather than his present, glory. These words "amazed
the father; but neither could he bear to revoke the freedom
he had granted her, and he promised her in marriage to Frode.
Then, having laid in ample stores, he took her away with the
most splendid pomp, and, followed by the envoys, hastened to
Denmark, knowing that a father was the best person to give
away a daughter in marriage. Frode welcomed his bride
most joyfully, and also bestowed the highest honours upon his
future royal father-in-law ; and when the marriage rites were
over, dismissed him with a large gift of gold and silver.

And so with Hanund, the daughter of the King of the Huns,
for his wife, he passed three years in the most prosperous peace.
But idleness brought wantonness among his courtiers, and
peace begot lewdness, which they displayed in the most abomin-
able crimes. For they would draw some men up in the air
on ropes, and torment them, pushing their bodies as they hung,
like a ball that is tossed ; or they would put a kid's hide under
the feet of others as they walked, and, by stealthily pulling a
rope, trip their unwary steps on the slippery skin in their
path ; others they would strip of their clothes, and lash with
sundry tortures of stripes ; others they fastened to pegs, as with
a noose, and punished with mock-hanging. They scorched
off the beard and hair with tapers; of others they burned the
hair of the groin with a brand. Only those maidens might
marry whose chastity they had first deflowered. Strangers
they battered with bones ; others they compelled to drunkenness
with immoderate draughts, and made them burst. No man

1 T>4 SAXO GRAMMATICTTS.

might give his daughter to wife unless he had first bought
their favour and goodwill. None might contract an}T marriage
without first purchasing their consent with a bribe. Moreover,
they extended their abominable and abandoned lust not only
to virgins, but to the multitude of matrons indiscriminately.
[126] Thus a twofold madness incited this mixture of wantonness
and frenzy. Guests and strangers were proffered not shelter but
revilings. All these maddening mockeries did this insolent
and wanton crew devise, and thus under a boy-king freedom
fostered licence. For nothing prolongs reckless sin like the
procrastination of punishment and vengeance. This unbridled
impudence of the soldiers ended by making the king detested,
not only by foreigners, but even by his own country, for the
Danes resented such an arrogant and cruel rule. But Grep
was contented with no humble loves ; he broke out so out-
rageously that he was guilty of intercourse with the queen,
and proved as false to the king as he was violent to all other
men. Then by degrees the scandal grew, and the suspicion
of his guilt crept on with silent step. The common people
found it out before the king. For Grep, by always punishing
all who alluded in the least to this circumstance, had made it
dangerous to accuse him. But the rumour of his crime, which
at first was kept alive in whispers, was next passed on in
public reports ; for it is hard for men to hide another's guilt
if they are aware of it. Gunwar had many suitors ; and
accordingly Grep, trying to take revenge for his rebuff by
stealthy wiles, demanded the right of judging the suitors,
declaring that the princess ought to make the choicest match.
But he disguised his anger, lest he should seem to have sought
the office from hatred of the maiden. At his request the
king granted him leave to examine the merits of the young
men. So he first gathered all the wooers of Gunwar together
on the pretence of a banquet, and then lined the customary
room of the princess with their heads — a gruesome spectacle
for all the rest. Yet he forfeited none of his favour with
Frode, nor abated his old intimacy with him. For he decided
that any opportunity of an interview with the king must be

BOOK FIVE. L55

paid for, and gave out that no one should have any conversa-
tion with him who brought no presents. Access, he announced,
to so great a general must be gained by no stale or usual
method, but by making interest most zealously. He wished
to lighten the scandal of his cruelty by the pretence of affection
to his king. The people, thus tormented, vented their com-
plaint of their trouble in silent groans. None had the spirit to
lift up his voice in public against this season of misery. No
one had become so bold as to complain openly of the affliction
that was falling upon them. Inward resentment vexed the
hearts of men, secretly indeed, but all the more bitterly.

When Gotar,1 the King of Norway, heard this, he assembled [127]
his soldiers, and said that the Danes were disgusted with their
own king, and longed for another if they could get the oppor-
tunity ; that he had himself resolved to lead an army thither,
and that Denmark would be easy to seize if attacked. Frode's
government of his country was as covetous as it was cruel.
Then Erik rose up and gainsaid the project with contrary
reasons. " We remember", he said, " how often coveters of
other men's goods lose their own. He who snatches at both
has oft lost both. It must be a very strong bird that can
wrest the prey from the claws of another. It is idle for thee
to be encouraged by the internal jealousies of the country, for
these are oft blown away by the approach of an enemy. For
though the Danes now seem divided in counsel, yet they will
soon be of one mind to meet the foe. The wolves have often
made peace between the quarrelling swine. Every man prefers
a leader of his own land to a foreigner, and every province is
warmer in loyalty to a native than to a stranger king. For
Frode will not await thee at home, but will intercept thee
abroad as thou comest. Eagles claw each other with their
talons, and fowls fight fronting. Thou thyself knowest that
the keen sight of the wise man must leave no cause for
repentance. Thou hast an ample guard of nobles. Keep thou
quiet as thou art ; indeed thou wilt almost be able to find out

1 Gotar] The name is spelt variously in Saxo, as Gotherus, Gothwarus,
etc., but we use this, the commonest form,

156 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

by means of others what are thy resources for war. Let
the soldiers first try the fortunes of their king. Provide in
peace for thine own safety, and risk others if thou dost under-
take the enterprise : Letter that the slave should perish than
the master. Let thy servant do for thee what the tongs do for
the smith, who by the aid of his iron tool guards his hand
from scorching, and saves his fingers from burning. Learn
thou also, by using thy men, to spare and take thought for thy-
self." So spake Erik, and Gotar, who had hitherto held him
a man of no parts, now marvelled that he had graced his
answer with sentences so choice and weighty, and gave him
the name of Shrewd-spoken,1 thinking that his admirable
wisdom deserved some title. For the young man's reputation
had been kept in the shade by the exceeding brilliancy of his
brother Roller. Erik begged that some substantial gift should
be added to the name, declaring that the bestowal of the title
ought to be graced by a present besides. The king gave him
a ship, and the oarsmen called it Skroter. Now Erik and
Roller were sons of Ragnar, the champion, and children of one
father by different mothers ; Roller's mother and Erik's step-
mother was named Kraka.

And so, by leave of Gotar, the task of making a raid on the
[128] Danes fell to one Hrafn. He was encountered by Odd, who
had at that time the greatest prestige among the Danes as a
rover, for he was such a skilled magician that he could range
over the sea without a ship, and could often raise tempests by
his spells, and wreck the vessels of the enemy. Accordingly,
that khe might not have to condescend to pit his sea-forces
against the rovers, he used to ruffle the waters by enchant-
ment, and cause them to shipwreck his foes. To traders this
man was ruthless^but to tillers of the soil he was merciful,
for he thought less of merchandise than of the plough-handle,
but rated the clean business of the country higher than the
toil for filthy lucre. When he began to fight with the North-
men, he so dulled the sight of the enemy by the power of his

1 Shrewd-spoken] IHsertus, Icel. hinn malspdki. — M.

BOOK FIVE. 157

spells that they thought the drawn swords of the Danes cast
their beams from afar off, and sparkled as if aflame. More-
over, their vision was so blunted that they could not so much
as look upon the sword when it was drawn from the sheath :
the dazzle was too much for their eyesight, which could not
endure the glittering mirage. So Hrafn and many of his men
were slain, and only six vessels slipped back to Norway to
teach the king that it was not so easy to crush the Danes.
The survivors also spread the news that Frode trusted only in
the help of his champions, and reigned against the will of his
people, for his rule had become a tyranny.

In order to examine this rumour, Roller, who was a great
traveller abroad, and eager to visit unknown parts, made a vow
that he would get into the company of Frode. But Erik declared
that, splendid as were his bodily parts, he had been rash in
pronouncing the vow. At last, seeing him persisting stubbornly
in his purpose, Erik bound himself under a similar vow ; and
the king promised them that he would give them for com-
panions whomsoever they approved by their choice. The
brethren, therefore, first resolved to visit their father and beg
for the stores and the necessaries that were wanted for so
long a journey. He welcomed them paternally, and on the
morrow took them to the forest to inspect the herd, for the
old man was wealthy in cattle. Also he revealed to them
treasures which had long lain hid in caverns of the earth ; and
they were suffered to gather up whatsoever of these they
would. The boon was accepted as heartily as it was offered :
so they took the riches out of the ground, and bore away
what pleased them.

Their rowers meanwhile were either refreshing themselves
or exercising themselves with casting weights. Some sped [129]
leaping, some running ; others tried their strength by sturdily
hurling stones ; others tested their archery by drawing the
bow. Thus they essayed to strengthen themselves with divers
exercises. Some again tried to drink themselves into a drowse.
Roller was sent by his father to find out what had passed
at home in the meanwhile. And when he saw smoke coming

158 SAXO GRAMMATICtJS.

from his mother's hut he went up outside, and, stealthily
applying his eye, saw through the little chink and into the
house, where he perceived his mother stirring a cooked mess
in an ugly-looking pot. Also he looked up at three snakes
hanging from above by a thin cord, from whose mouths flowed
a .slaver which dribbled drops of moisture on the meal. Now
two of these were pitchy of hue, while the third seemed to
have whitish scales, and was hung somewhat higher than the
others. This last had a fastening on its tail, while the others
were held by a cord round their bellies. Roller thought
the affair looked like magic, but was silent on what he had
seen, that he might not be thought to charge his mother with
sorcery. For he did not know that the snakes were naturally
harmless, or how much strength was being brewed for that
meal. Then Ragnar and Erik came up, and, when they saw
the smoke issuing from the cottage, entered and went to lie at
meat. When they were at table, and Kraka's son and stepson
were about to eat together, she put before them a small dish
containing a piebald mess, part looking pitchy, but spotted
with specks of yellow, while part was whitish : the pottage
having taken a different hue answering to the different appear-
ance of the snakes. And when each had tasted a single morsel,
Erik, judging the feast not by the colours but by the inward
strengthening effected, turned the dish round very quickly,
and transferred to himself the part which was black but com-
pounded of stronger juices ; and, putting over to Roller the
whitish part which had first been set before himself, throve
more on his supper. And, to avoid showing that the exchange
was made on purpose, he said, " Thus does prow become stern
when the sea boils up." The man had no little shrewdness,
thus to use the ways of a ship to dissemble his cunning act.

So Erik, now refreshed by this lucky meal,1 attained by its
inward working to the highest pitch of human wisdom. For
the potency of the meal bred in him the fulness of all kinds
of knowledge to an incredible degree, so that he had cunning
to interpret even the utterances of wild beasts and cattle.

1 Meal] Cp. that of Balder, p. 92, above.

feOOK FIVE. 159

Vov he was not only well versed in all the affairs of men, but
he could interpret the particular feelings which brutes expe-
rienced from the sounds which expressed them. He was also [130]
gifted with an eloquence so courteous and graceful, that he
adorned whatsoever he desired to expound with a flow of
witty adages. But when Kraka came up, and found that the
dish had been turned round, and that Erik had eaten the
stronger share of the meal, she lamented that the good luck
she had bred for her son should have passed to her stepson.
Soon she began to sigh, and entreat Erik that he should
never fail to help his brother, whose mother had heaped
on him fortune so rich and strange : for by tasting a single
savoury meal he had clearly attained sovereign wit and
eloquence, besides the promise of success in combat. She
added also, that Roller was almost as capable of good counsel,
and that he should not utterly miss the dainty that had been
intended for him. She also told him that in case of extreme
and violent need, he could find speedy help by calling on her
name ; declaring that she trusted partially in her divine attri-
butes, and that, consorting as she did in a manner with the
gods, she wielded an innate and heavenly power. Erik said
that he was naturally drawn to stand by his brother, and
that the bird was infamous which fouled its own nest. But
Kraka was more vexed by her own carelessness than weighed
down by her son's ill-fortune : for in old time it made a crafts-
man bitterly ashamed to be outwitted by his own cleverness.

Then Kraka, accompanied by her husband, took away the
brothers on their journey to the sea. They embarked in a
single ship, but soon attached two others. They had already
reached the coast of Denmark, when, reconnoitring, they
learned that seven ships had come up at no great distance.
Then Erik bade two men who could speak the Danish tongue
well, to go to them unclothed, and, in order to spy better, to
complain to Odd of their nakedness, as if Erik had caused it,
and to report when they had made careful scrutiny. These
men were received as friends by Odd, and hunted for every
plan of the general with their sharp ears. He had determined

160 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

to attack the enemy unawares at daybreak, that he might
massacre them the more speedily while they were swathed
in their night garments : for he said that men's bodies were
wont to be most dull and heavy at that hour of dawn. He
also told them, thereby hastening what was to prove his own
destruction, that his ships were laden with stones fit for
throwing. The spies slipped off in the first sleep of the night,
reported that Odd had filled all his vessels with pebbles, and
[131] also told everything else they had heard. Erik now quite
understood the case, and, when he considered the smallness
of his own fleet, thought that he must call the waters to
destroy the enemy, and win their aid for himself.

So he got into a boat and rowed, pulling silently, close up
to the keels of the enemy ; and gradually, by screwing in an
auger, he bored the planks1 nearest to the water, and soon made
good his return, the oar-beat being scarce audible. Now he
bore himself so warily, that not one of the watchers noted his
approach or departure. As he rowed off, the water got in
through the chinks of Odd's vessels, and sank them, so that
they were seen disappearing in the deep, as the water flooded
them more and more within. The weight of the stones inside
helped them mightily to sink. The billows were washing
away the thwarts, and the sea was flush with the decks, when
Odd, seeing the vessels almost on a level with the waves,
ordered the heavy seas that had been shipped to be baled
out with pitchers. And so, while the crews were toiling on to
protect the sinking parts of the vessels from the flood of
waters, the enemy hove close up. Thus, as they fell to their
arms, the flood came upon them harder, and as they prepared
to fight, they found they must swim for it. Waves, not
weapons, fought for Erik, and the sea, which he had himself
enabled to approach and do harm, battled for him. Thus
Erik made better use of the billow than of the steel, and by the
effectual aid of the waters seemed to fight in his own absence,
the ocean lending him defence. The victory was given to his

1 Bored the planks . . . | For this device cp. Bk. I, p. 41, and
Bk. 11, p. 48.

BOOK FIVE. 161

craft ; for a flooded ship could not endure a battle. Thus was
Odd slain with all his crew ; the look-outs were captured, and
it was found that no man escaped to tell the tale of the
disaster.

Erik, when the massacre was accomplished, made a rapid
retreat, and put in at the isle Lesso. Finding nothing there
to appease his hunger, he sent the spoil homeward on two
ships, which were to bring back supplies for another year.
He tried to go by himself to the king in a single ship. So he
put in to Zealand, and the sailors ran about over the shore,
and began to cut down the cattle : for they must either ease
their hunger or perish of famine. So they killed the herd,
skinned the carcases, and cast them on board. When the
owners of the cattle found this out, they hastily pursued the
freebooters with a fleet. And when Erik found that he was
being attacked by the owners of the cattle, he took care that
the carcases of the slaughtered cows should be tied with marked
ropes and hidden under water. Then, when the Zealanders
came up, he gave them leave to look about and see if any of
the carcases they were seeking were in his hands; saying that [i32]
a ship's corners were too narrow to hide things. Unable to
find a carcase anywhere, they turned their suspicions on
others, and thought the real criminals were guiltless of the
plunder. Since no traces of freebooting were to be seen, they
fancied that others had injured them, and pardoned the
culprits. As they sailed off, Erik lifted the carcase out of the
water and took it in.

Meantime Frode learnt that Odd and his men had gone down.
For a widespread rumour of the massacre had got wind,
though the author of the deed was unknown. There were
men, however, who told how they had seen three sails putting
in to shore, and departing again northwards. Then Erik went
to the harbour, not far from which Frode was tarrying, and,
the moment that he stepped out of the ship, tripped inadver-
tently, and came tumbling to the ground. He found in the
slip a presage of a lucky issue, and forecast better results
from this mean beginning. When Grep heard of his coming,

162 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

lie hastened down to the sea, intending to assail with chosen
and pointed phrases the man whom he had heard was better-
spoken than all other folk. Grep's eloquence was not so
much excellent as impudent, for he surpassed all in stubborn-
ness of speech. So he began the dispute with reviling, and
assailed Erik as follows :

Grep. " Fool, who art thou ? What idle quest is thine ?
Tell me, whence or whither dost thou journey ? What is thy
road ? What thy desire ? Who thy father ? What thy
lineage ? Those have strength beyond others who have never
left their own homes, and the Luck of kings is their house-
luck.1 For the doings of a vile man are acceptable unto few,
and seldom are the deeds of the hated pleasing."

Erik. " Ragnar is my father ; eloquence clothes my tongue ;
I have ever loved virtue only. Wisdom hath been my one
desire ; I have travelled many ways over the world, and seen
the different manners of men. The mind of the fool can keep
no bounds in aught : it is base and cannot control its feelings.
The use of sails is better than being drawn by the oar ; the
[133] gale troubles the waters, a drearier gust the land. For rowing
goes through the seas and lying the lands ; and it is certain
that the lands are ruled with the lips, but the seas with the
hand."2

Grep. " Thou art thought to be as full of quibbling as a cock
of dirt. Thou stinkest heavy with filth, and reekest of nought

1 The Luck of kings is their house-luck] JRajumque domesticus est Lar.
The Lav is probably the guardian genius or Luck, Hamingja, and the sense
is merely, " they have the good fortune of kings". Grep abuses Erik for
being a wanderer, and hints that he has a bad reason for his travels,
perhaps exile for some crime. This at least seems to be the connection
with the clause, "for the doing, etc." Erik, after explaining that he
travels for wisdom, retorts that Grep is a fool and a liar.

2 The use of sails . . . with the hand] The point of the contrast
between the sail and the oar is not clear ; but what follows is a comparison
of the force of lies on land to that of a gale at sea. The " drearier gust''
is lying, and in the last line there is a play hard to render in the word
proni, which means "oppressed" in reference to the lands, and "ruled"'
or " pressed" in reference to the seas which are rowed upon.

BOOK FIVE. 163

but sin. There is no need to lengthen the plea against a
buffoon, whose strength is in an empty and voluble tongue."

Erik. " By Hercules, if I mistake not, the coward word
is wont to come back to the utterer. The gods with righteous
endeavour bring home to the speaker words cast forth without
knowledge. As soon as we espy the sinister ears of the
wolf, we believe that the wolf himself is near. Men think
no credit due to him that hath no credit, whom report accuses
of treachery."

Grep. " Shameless boy, owl astray from the path, night-owl
in the darkness, thou shalt pay for thy reckless words. Thou
shalt be sorry for the words thou now belchest forth madly,
and shalt pay with thy death for thy unhallowed speech. Life-
less thou shalt pasture crows on thy bloodless corpse, to be a
morsel for beasts, a prey to the ravenous bird."

Erik, " The boding of the coward, and the will that is
trained to evil, have never kept themselves within due
measure. He who betrays his lord, he who conceives foul
devices, will be as great a snare to himself as to his friends.
Whoso fosters a wolf in his house is thought to feed a thief
and a pest for his own hearth."

Grep. " I did not,1 as thou thinkest, beguile the queen, but
I was the guardian of her tender estate. She increased my [lj|-]
fortunes, and her favour first brought me gifts and strength,
and wealth and counsel."

Erik. " Lo, thy guilty disquiet lies heavy on thee ; that
man's freedom is safest whose mind remains untainted. Whoso
asks a slave to be a friend, is deceived ;' of ten the henchman
hurts his master."

At this Grep, shorn of his glibness of rejoinder, set spurs to
his horse and rode away. Now when he reached home, he filled
the palace with uproarious and vehement clamour ; and shout-
ing that he had been worsted in words, roused all his soldiers

1 I did not . . . ] Suo ipsius indicio per lit sorex. Erlcus nullam
plane injecit Reginae mentionem a Qreppo stupratae, prlusquam ipse se
prodet. Scilicet haec vis malae est conscientiae. — St. Qui s'excuse s'accuse.

164 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

to fight, as though he would avenge by main force his luckless
warfare of tongues. For he swore that he would lay the host
of the foreigners under the claws of eagles. But the king
warned him that he should give his frenzy pause for counsel,
that blind plans were commonly hurtful ; that nothing could
be done both cautiously and quickly at once ; that headstrong
efforts were the worst obstacle ; and lastly, that it was unseemly
to attack a handful with a host. Also, said he, the sagacious
man was he who could bridle a raging spirit, and stop his
frantic impetuosity in time. Thus the king forced the head-
long rage of the young man to yield to reflection. But he
could not wholly recall to self-control the frenzy of his heated
mind, or prevent the champion of wrangles, abashed by his
hapless debate, and finding armed vengeance refused him, from
asking leave at least to try his sorceries by way of revenge.
He gained his request, and prepared to go back to the shore
with a chosen troop of wizards. So he first put on a pole
the severed head of a horse that had been sacrificed to the
gods, and, setting sticks beneath, displayed the jaws grinning
agape ; hoping that he would foil the first efforts of Erik by
the horror of this wild spectacle. For he supposed that the
silly souls of the barbarians would give way at the bogey of a
protruding neck. Erik was already on his road to meet them.
He espied the head from afar off', and, understanding the whole
foul contrivance, he bade his men keep silent and behave
warily : no man was to be rash or hasty of speech, lest by some
careless outburst they might give some opening to the sorceries ;
adding that if talking happened to be needed, he would speak
for all. And they were now parted by a river ; when the
[J35] wizards, in order to dislodge Erik from the approach to the
bridge, set up close to the river, on their own side, the pole on
which they had fixed the horse's head. Nevertheless Erik
made dauntlessly for the bridge, and said : " On the bearer fall
the ill-luck of what he bears ! May a better issue attend our
steps ! Evil befall the evil-workers ! Let the weight of
the ominous burden crush the carrier ! Let better auguries
bring us safety!" And it happened according to his prayer.

BOOK FIVE. 165

For straightway the head was shaken off, the stick fell and
crushed the bearer. And so all that array of sorceries was
baffled at the bidding of a single curse, and extinguished.

Then, as Erik advanced a little, it came into his mind that
strangers ought to fix on gifts for the king. So he carefully
wrapped up in his robe a piece of ice which he happened
to find, and managed to take it to the king by way of a
present. But when they reached the palace he sought entrance
first, and bade his brother follow close behind. Already the
slaves of the king, in order to receive him with mockery as he
entered, had laid a slippery hide on the threshold ; and when
Erik stepped upon it, they suddenly jerked it away by dragging
a rope, and would have tripped him as he stood upon it, had not
Roller, following behind, caught his brother on his breast as
he tottered. So Erik, having half fallen, said that " bare was
the back of the brotherless". And when Gun war said that
such a trick ought not to be permitted by a king, the king
condemned the folly of the messenger who took no heed
against treachery. And thus he excused his flout by the
heedlessness of the man he flouted.

Within the palace was blazing a fire, which the aspect of the
season required : for it was now gone midwinter. By it, in
different groups, sat the king on one side and the champions
on the other. These latter, when Erik joined them, uttered
gruesome sounds like things howling. The king stopped the
clamour, telling them that the noises of wild beasts ought
not to be in the breasts of men. Erik added, that it was the
way of dogs, for all the others to set up barking when one
started it : for all folk by their bearing betrayed their birth
and revealed their race. But when Koll, who was the keeper
of the gifts offered to the king, asked him whether he had
brought any presents with him, he produced the ice which
he had hidden in his breast. And when he had handed it
to Koll across the hearth, he purposely let it go into the fire,
as though it had slipped from the hand of the receiver. All
present saw the shining fragment, and it seemed as though
molten metal had fallen into the fire. Erik, maintaining that it

166 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

had been jerked away by the carelessness of him who took it,
asked what punishment was due to the loser of the gift.
[i£6] The king consulted the opinion of the queen, who advised
him not to relax the statute of the law which he had passed,
whereby he gave warning that all who lost presents that
were transmitted to him should be punished with death.
Everyone else also said that the penalty by law appointed
ought not to be remitted. And so the king, being counselled
to allow the punishment as inevitable, gave leave for Koll to
be hanged.

Then Frode began to accost Erik thus : " 0 thou, wantoning
in insolent phrase, in boastful and bedizened speech, whence
dost thou say that thou hast come hither, and why ?"

Erik answered1 : " I came from Rennes Isle,2 and I took my
seat by a stone."

Frode rejoined : " I ask, whither thou wentest next V*

Erik answered : " I went off from the stone riding on a
beam, and often again took station by a stone."

Frode replied : " I ask thee whither thou next didst bend
thy course, or where the evening found thee ?"

Then said Erik : " Leaving a crag, I came to a rock, and
likewise lay by a stone."

Frode said : " The boulders lay thick in those parts."

Erik answered : " Yet thicker lies the sand, plain to see."

Frode said : " Tell what thy business was, and whither thou
struckest off thence."

Then said Erik : " Leaving the rock, as my ship ran on, I
found a dolphin."

Frode said : "Now thou hast said something fresh, though
both these things are common in the sea: but I would know
what path took thee after that ?"

Erik answered : " After a dolphin I went to a dolphin."

1 Erik answered . . .] He describes in veiled language his voyage
among the boulders off Denmark, and, according to M., means by the
"dolphins" the ships which he met and took. The logs, etc., mark his
landing on a wooded coast.

2 Rennes Isle] Renneso in Stavanger-fjord.

BOOK FIVE. 167

Erode said : "The herd of dolphins is somewhat common."
Then said Erik : " It does swim somewhat commonly on the
waters/'

Frode said : " I would fain know whither thou wert borne on
thy toilsome journey after leaving the dolphins ?"

Erik answered : " I soon came upon the trunk of a tree."
Frode rejoined : " Whither didst thou next pass on thy
journey ?"

Then said Erik : " From a trunk I passed on to a log."
Frode said : " That spot must be thick with trees, since thou
art always calling the abodes of thy hosts by the name of trunks."
Erik replied : " There is a thicker place in the woods."
Frode went on : " Relate whither thou next didst bear thy
steps."

Erik answered : " Oft again I made my way to the lopped
timbers of the woods ; but, as I rested there, wolves that were
sated on human carcases licked the points of the spears. There
a lance-head was shaken from the shaft of the king, and it
was the grandson of Fridleif."

Frode said : " I am bewildered, and know not what to think
about the dispute : for thou hast beguiled my mind with very
dark riddling."

Erik answered: "Thou owest me the prize for this contest [137]
that is finished : for under a veil I have declared to thee
certain things thou hast ill understood. For under the name1
I gave before of 'spear-point' I signified Odd, whom my hand
had slain."

And when the queen also had awarded him the palm of
eloquence and the prize for flow of speech, the king straight-
way took a bracelet from his arm, and gave it to him as the
appointed reward, adding : " I would fain learn from thyself
thy debate with Grep, wherein he was not ashamed openly
to avow himself vanquished."

Then said Erik : "He was smitten with shame2 for the adul-

1 For under the name] Icel. Oddr, "spear-point".

2 He was smitten with shame . . .] rubor ilium . . . perculit. So
ed. pr. St. and later edd. change to robur, which is less apposite.

168 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

tery wherewith he was taxed ; for since he could bring no
defence, he confessed that he had committed it with thy wife."

The king turned to Hanund and asked her in what spirit
she received the charge ; and she not only confessed her guilt
by a cry, but also put forth in her face a blushing signal of her
sin, and gave a manifest token of her fault. The king, observing
not only her words, but also the signs of her countenance, but
doubting with what sentence he should punish the criminal, let
the queen settle by her own choice the punishment which her
crime deserved. When she learnt that the sentence committed
to her concerned her own guilt, she wavered awhile as she
pondered how to appraise her transgression ; but Grep sprang
up and ran forward to transfix Erik with a spear, wishing to
buy off his own death by slaying the accuser. But Roller
fell on him with drawn sword, and dealt him first the doom he
had himself purposed.

Erik said : " The service of kin is best for the helpless."

And Roller said : " In sore needs good men should be duti-
fully summoned."

Then Frode said : " I think it will happen to you according
to the common saying, '' that the striker sometimes has short
joy of his stroke', and ' that the hand is seldom long glad
of the smiting."

Erik answered : " The man must not be impeached whose
deed justice excuses. For my work is as far as from that of
Grep, as an act of self-defence is from an attack upon another."

Then the brethren of Grep began to spring up and clamour
and swear that they would either bring avengers upon the
whole fleet of Erik, or would fight him and ten champions
with him.

Erik said to them : " Sick men have to devise by craft some
provision for their journey. He whose sword-point is dull
should only probe things that are soft and tender. He who
has a blunt knife must search out the way to cut joint by
joint. Since, therefore, it is best for a man in distress to delay
the evil, and nothing is more fortunate in trouble than to
stave off hard necessity, I ask three days' space to get ready,

BOOK FIVE. 169

provided that I may obtain from the king the skin of a freshly
slain ox."

Frode answered : " He who fell on a hide deserves a hide" ; [138]
thus openly taunting the asker with his previous fall. But
Erik, when the hide was given him, made some sandals, which
he smeared with a mixture of tar and sand, in order to plant
his steps the more firmly, and fitted them on to the feet of
himself and his people. At last, having meditated what spot
he should choose for the fight — for he said that he was un-
skilled in combat by land and in all warfare — he demanded
it should be on the frozen sea. To this both sides agreed.
The king granted a truce for preparations, and bade the sons
of Westmar withdraw, saying that it was amiss that a guest,
even if he had deserved ill, should be driven from his
lodging. Then he went back to examine into the manner of the
punishment, which he had left to the queen's own choice to
exact. But she forebore to give judgment, and begged
pardon for her slip. Erik added, that woman's errors must
often be forgiven, and that punishment ought not to be
inflicted, unless amendment were unable to get rid of the
fault. So the king pardoned Hanund. As twilight drew near,
Erik said : " With Gotar, not only are rooms provided when
the soldiers are coming to feast at the banquet, but each is
appointed a separate place and seat where he is to lie." Then
the king gave up for their occupation the places where his
own champions had sat ; and next the servants brought
the banquet. But Erik, knowing well the courtesy of the
king, which made him forbid them to use up any of the
meal that was left, cast away the piece of which he had tasted
very little, calling whole portions broken bits of food. And
so, as the dishes dwindled, the servants brought up fresh ones
to the lacking and shamefaced guests, thus spending on a little
supper what might have served for a great banquet.

So the king said : " Are the soldiers of Gotar wont to
squander the meat after once touching it, as if it were so
many pared-off crusts ? And to spurn the first dishes as if
they were the last morsels ?"

170 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Erik said : " Uncoutlmess claims no place in the manners
of Gotar, neither does any disorderly habit reign there."

But Frode said : " Tlien thy manners are not those of thy
lord, and thou hast proved that thou hast not taken all wisdom
to heart. For he who goes against the example of his elders
shows himself a deserter and a runagate."

Then said Erik : " The wise man must be taught by the
wiser. For knowledge grows by learning, and instruction is
advanced by doctrine."

Frode rejoined : " This affectation of thine of superfluous
words, what exemplary lesson will it teach me ? "

Erik said : " A loyal few are a safer defence for a king than
many traitors."

Frode said to him : " Wilt thou then show us closer alle-
giance than the rest ? "
[139] Erik said : " No man ties1 the unborn [horse] to the crib, or
the unbegotten to the stall. For thou hast not yet experienced
all things. Besides, with Gotar there is always a mixture of
drinking with feasting ; liquor, over and above, and as well as
meat, is the joy of the reveller."

Frode said : " Never have I found a more shameless beggar
of meat and drink."

Erik replied : " Few reckon the need of the silent, or measure
the wants of him who holds his peace."

Then the king bade his sister bring forth the drink in a
great goblet. Erik caught hold of her right hand and of the
goblet she offered at the same time, and said : " Noblest of
kings, hath thy benignity granted me this present ? Dost thou
assure me that what I hold shall be mine as an irrevocable

gift?"

The king, thinking that he was only asking for the cup,
declared it was a gift. But Erik drew the maiden to him, as
if she was given with the cup. When the king saw it, he
said: " A fool is shown by his deed; with us the freedom of
maidens is ever held inviolate."

1 No man ties . ..] This proverb (Hart er vfudt heat at binds ved

krybbc.— St.) means that Frode's question about Erik's allegiance is pre-
mature. Erik at once changes the subject.

BOOK FIVE. 171

Then Erik, feigning that he would cut off the girl's hand
with his sword, as though it had been granted under the
name of the cup, said : " If I have taken more than thou
gavest, or if I am rash to keep the whole, let me at least get
some." The king saw his mistake in his promise, and gave
him the maiden, being loth to undo his heedlessness by fickle-
ness, and that the weight of his pledge might seem the greater;
though it is held an act more of ripe judgment than of un-
steadfastness to take back a foolish promise.

Then, taking from Erik security that he would return, he
sent him to the ships; for the time appointed for the battle was
at hand. Erik and his men went on to the sea, then covered
near with ice ; and, thanks to the stability of their sandals,
felled the enemy, whose footing was slippery and unsteady.
Eor Frode had decreed that no man should help either side if
it wavered or were distressed. Then he went back in triumph
to the king. So Got war, sorrowing at the destruction of her
children who had miserably perished, and eager to avenge
them, announced that it would please her to have a flyting
with Erik, on condition that she should gage a heavy neck-
lace and he his life ; so that if he conquered he should win
gold, but if he gave in, death. Erik agreed to the contest,
and the gage was deposited with Gunwar.

So Gotwar began thus1:

14 Quando tuam limas admissa cote bipennem,
Nonne terit tremulas mentula quassa nates ?"

Erik rejoined : [H0]

44 Ut cuivis natura pilos in corpore sevit,

Omnis nempe suo barba ferenda loco est.
lie Veneris homines artus agitare necesse est ;

Motus quippe suos nam labor omnis habet.
Cum natis excipitur nate, vel cum subdita penem

Vulva capit, quid ad haec addere mas renuit ?"

1 Gotvar began thus . . .] This "flyting" is corrupt in every sense of
the word. The readings in Erik's reply (of which Holder's text is here
given) are hopeless. (Spurcum hoc et honestis indignum auribus carmen.
—St.)

172 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Powerless to answer this, Gotwar had to give the gold to
the man whom she had meant to kill, and thus wasted a lordly
gift instead of punishing the slayer of her son. For her ill-
fate was crowned, instead of her ill-will being avenged. First
bereaved, and then silenced by furious words, she lost at
once her wealth and all reward of her eloquence. She made
the man blest who had taken away her children, and enriched
her bereaver with a present : and took away nothing to
make up the slaughter of her sons save the reproach of
ignorance and the loss of goods. Westmar, when he saw this,
determined to attack the man by force, since he was the
stronger of tongue, and laid down the condition that the
reward of the conqueror should be the death of the conquered,
so that the life of both parties was plainly at stake. Erik,
unwilling to be thought quicker of tongue than of hand, did
not refuse the terms.

Now the manner of combat was as follows. A ring, plaited
of withy or rope, used to be offered to the combatants for them
to drag away by wrenching it with a great effort of foot and
hand ; and the prize went to the stronger, for if either of the
combatants could wrench it from the other, he was awarded
the victory. Erik struggled in this manner, and, grasping the
rope sharply, wrested it out of the hands of his opponent.
When Frode saw this, he said : " I think it is hard to tug at
a rope with a strong man."

And Erik said : " Hard, at any rate, when a tumour is in
the body or a hunch sits on the back."

And straightway, thrusting his foot forth, he broke the in-
firm neck and back of the old man, and crushed him. And
so Westmar failed to compass his revenge : zealous to retaliate,
he fell into the portion of those who need revenging ; being
smitten down even as those whose slaughter he had desired to
punish.

Now Frode intended to pierce Erik by throwing a dagger
at him. But Gun war knew her brother's purpose, and said,
in order to warn her betrothed of his peril, that no man could
be wise who took no forethought for himself. This speech

BOOK FIVE. 173

warned Erik to ward off the treachery, and he shrewdly under-
stood the counsel of caution. For at once he sprang up and [141]
said that the glory of the wise man would be victorious, but
that guile was its own punishment ; thus censuring his treacher-
ous intent in very gentle terms. But the king suddenly flung
his knife at him, yet was too late to hit him; for he sprang
aside, and the steel missed its mark and ran into the wall
opposite. Then said Erik : " Gifts should be handed to friends,
and not thrown : thou hadst made the present acceptable if
thou hadst given the sheath to keep the blade company."

On this request the king at once took the sheath from his
girdle and gave it him, being forced to abate his hatred by the
self-control of his foe. Thus he was mollified by the prudent
feigning of the other, and with goodwill gave him for his own
the weapon which he had cast with ill will. And thus Erik,
by taking the wrong done him in a dissembling manner, turned
it into a favour, accepting as a splendid gift the steel which
had been meant to slay him. For he put a generous com-
plexion on what Frode had done with intent to harm. Then
they gave themselves up to rest. In the night Gunwar awoke
Erik silently, and pointed out to him that they ought to fly,
saying that it was very expedient to return with safe chariot
ere harm was done. He went with her to the shore, where he
happened to find the king's fleet beached : so, cutting away
part of the sides, he made it unseaworthy, and by again
replacing some laths he patched it so that the damage might
be unnoticed by those who looked at it. Then he caused the
vessel whither he and his company had retired to put oft* a
little from the shore.

The king prepared to give them chase with his mutilated
ships, but soon the waves rose deck-high ; and though he was
very heavily laden with his armour, he began to swim off
among the rest, having become more anxious to save his own
life than to attack that of others. The bows plunged over into
the sea, the tide flooded in and swept the rowers from their
seats. When Erik and Roller saw this they instantly flung
themselves into the deep water, spurning danger, and by

174 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

swimming picked up the king, who was tossing about.
Thrice the waxes had poured over him and borne him down
when Erik caught him by the hair, and lifted him out of the
sea. The remaining crowd of the wrecked either sank in the
waters, or got with trouble to the land. The king was stripped
of his dripping attire and swathed round with dry garments,
and the water poured in floods from his chest as he kept belch-
ing it : his voice also seemed to fail under the exhaustion of
continual pantings. At last heat was restored to his limbsr
which were numbed with cold, and his breathing became
quicker. He had not fully got back his strength, and could sit
[142] but not rise. Gradually his native force returned. But when
he was asked at last whether he sued for life and grace, he
put his hand to his eyes, and strove to lift up their down-
cast gaze. But as, little by little, power came back to his
body, and as his voice became more assured, he said1:

" By this light, which I am loth to look on, by this heaven
which I behold and drink in with little joy, I beseech and con-
jure you not to persuade me to use either any more. I wished
to die; ye have saved me in vain. I was not allowed to perish
in the waters ; at least I will die by the sword. I was un-
conquered before : thine, Erik, was the first wit to which I
yielded : I was all the more unhappy, because I had never been
beaten by men of note, and now I let a low-born man defeat me.
This is great cause for a kino; to be ashamed. This is a o-ood
and sufficient reason for a general to die ; it is right that he
should care for nothing so much as glory. If he want that,
then take it that he lacks all else. For nothing about a king
is more on men's lips than his repute. I was credited with
the height of understanding and eloquence. But I have been
stripped of both the things wherein I was thought to excel,,
and am all the more miserable because I, the conqueror of
kings, am seen conquered by a peasant. Why grant life to
him whom thou hast robbed of honour ? I have lost sister,

1 He said . . .] M. well remarks upon the flow and comparative
classicality of Saxo's style in this fine speech, so full of the stoical Norse
sense of honour.

BOOK FIVE. 175

realm, treasure, household gear, and, what is greater than them
all, renown : I am luckless in all chances, and in all thy good
fortune is confessed. Why am I to be kept to live on for
all this ignominy ? What freedom can be so happy for me
that it can wipe out all the shame of captivity ? What
will all following time bring for me ? It can beget nothing
but long remorse in my mind, and will savour only of past
woes. What will prolonging of life avail, if it only brings
back the memory of sorrow ? To the stricken nought is
pleasanter than death, and that decease is happy which comes
at a man's wish, for it cuts not short any sweetness of his
days, but annihilates his disgust at all things. Life in pros-
perity, but death in adversity, is best to seek. No hope of
better things tempts me to long for life. What hap can quite
repair my shattered fortunes ? And by now, had ye not
rescued me in my peril, I should have forgotten even these.
What though thou shouldst give me back my realm, restore
my sister, and renew my treasure ? thou canst never repair
my renown. Nothing that is patched up can have the lustre of
the unimpaired, and rumour will recount for ages that Frode
was taken captive. Moreover, if ye reckon the calamities I have
inflicted on you, I have deserved to die at your hands ; if ye
recall the harms I have done, ye will repent your kindness.
Ye will be ashamed of having aided a foe, if ye consider how
savagely he treated you. Why do ye spare the guilty ?
Why do ye stay your hand from the throat of your persecutor? [143]
It is fitting that the lot which I had prepared for you should
come home to myself. I own that if I had happened to have
you in my power as ye now have me, I should have paid
no heed to compassion. But if I am innocent before you in
act, I am guilty at least in will. I pray you, let my wrongful
intention, which sometimes is counted to stand for the deed,
recoil upon me. If ye refuse me death by the sword I will
take care to kill myself with my own hand."

Erik rejoined thus : " I pray that the gods may turn thee
from the folly of thy purpose : turn thee, I say, that thou
mayst not try to end a most glorious life abominably. Why

176 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

surely the gods themselves have forbidden that a man who is
kind to others should commit unnatural self-murder. Fortune
has tried thee to find out with what spirit thou wouldst
meet adversity. Destiny has proved thee, not brought thee
low. No sorrow has been inflicted on thee which a happier lot
cannot efface. Thy prosperity has not been changed ; only a
warning has been given thee. No man behaves with self-control
in prosperity who has not learnt to endure adversity. Besides,
the whole use of blessings is reaped after misfortunes have been
graciously acknowledged. Sweeter is the joy which follows on
the bitterness of fate. Wilt thou shun thy life because thou hast
once had a drenching, and the waters closed over thee ? But
if the waters can crush thy spirit, when wilt thou with calm
courage bear the sword ? Who would not reckon swimming
away in his armour more to his glory than to his shame ?
How many men would think themselves happy were they
unhappy with thy fortune ? The sovereignty is still thine ;
thy courage is in its prime ; thy years are ripening ; thou
canst hope to compass more than thou hast yet achieved.
I would not find thee fickle enough to wish, not only to
shun hardships, but also to fling away thy life, because thou
couldst not bear them. None is so unmanly as he who from
fear of adversity loses heart to live. No wise man makes up
for his calamities by dying. Wrath against another is foolish,
but against a man's self it is foolhardy : and it is a coward
frenzy which dooms its owner. But if thou go without
need to thy death for some wrong suffered, or for some petty
perturbation of spirit, whom dost thou leave behind to avenge
thee ? Who is so mad that he would wish to punish the fickle-
ness of fortune by destroying himself ? What man has lived
so prosperously but that ill fate has sometimes stricken him ?
Hast thou enjoyed felicity unbroken and passed thy days
without a shock, and now, upon a slight cloud of sadness,1
dost thou prepare to quit thy life, only to save thy anguish ?
[144] If thou bear trifles so ill, how shalt thou endure the heavier

1 Cloud of sadness] tristitiae salcbram, lit. "rugged, uneven way of
sadness" ; a phrase from Saxo's favourite Valerius Maximus, vi, 9.

BOOK FIVE. 177

frowns of fortune ? Callow is the man who has never tasted
of the cup of sorrow ; and no man who has not suffered hard-
ships is temperate in enjoying ease. Wilt thou, who shouldst
have been a pillar of courage, show a sign of a palsied
spirit ? Born of a brave sire, wilt thou display utter im-
potence ? Wilt thou fall so far from thy ancestors as to
turn softer than women ? Hast thou not yet begun thy
prime, and art thou already taken with weariness of life ?
Whoever set such an example before ? Shall the grandson of
a famous man, and the child of the unvanquished,be too weak
to endure a slight gust of adversity ? Thy nature portrays
the courage of thy sires : none has conquered thee, only thine
own heedlessness has hurt thee. We snatched thee from peril,
we did not subdue thee ; wilt thou give us hatred for love,
and set our friendship down as wrongdoing ? Our service
should have appeased thee, and not troubled thee. May the
gods never desire thee to go so far in frenzy, as to persist
in branding thy preserver as a traitor ! Shall we be guilty
before thee in a matter wherein we do thee good ? Shall we
draw answer on us for our service ? Wilt thou account him
thy foe whom thou hast to thank for thy life ? For thou
wert not free when we took thee, but in distress, and we
came in time to help thee. And, behold, I restore thy treasure,
thy wealth, thy goods. If thou thinkest thy sister was
betrothed to me over-hastily, let her marry the man whom
thou commandest; for her chastity remains inviolate. More-
over, if thou wilt accept me, I wish to fight for thee. Beware
lest thou wrongfully steel thy mind in anger. No loss of power
has shattered thee, none of thy freedom has been forfeited.
Thou shalt see that I am obeying, not commanding thee. I
agree to any sentence thou mayst pronounce against my life.
Be assured that thou art as strong here as in thy palace ; thou
hast the same power to rule here as in thy court. Enact
concerning us here whatsoever would have been thy will in
the palace : we are ready to obey." Thus much said Erik.

Now this speech softened the king towards himself as much
as towards his foe. Then, everything being arranged and made

178 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

friendly, they returned to the shore. The king ordered that
Erik and his sailors should be taken in carriages. But when
they reached the palace he had an assembly summoned, to
which he called Erik, and under the pledge of betrothal gave
him his sister and command over a hundred men.1 Then he
added that the queen would be a weariness to him, and that
the daughter of Gotar had taken his liking. He must, there-
fore, have a fresh embassy, and the business could best be
done by Erik, for whose efforts nothing seemed too hard.
He also said that he would stone Gotwar to death for her
[145] complicity in concealing the crime : but Hanund he would
restore to her father, that he might not have a traitress against
his life dwelling amongst the Danes. Erik approved his
plans, and promised his help to carry out his bidding ; except
that he declared that it would be better to marry the queen,
when she had been put away, to Roller, of whom his sove-
reignty need have no fears. This opinion Frode received
reverentially, as though it were some lesson vouchsafed from
above. The queen also, that she might not seem to be driven
by compulsion, complied, as women will, and declared that
there was no natural necessity to grieve, and that all distress
of spirit was a creature of fancy : and, moreover, that one
ought not to bewail the punishment that befell one's deserts.
And so the brethren celebrated their marriages together, one
wedding the sister of the king, and the other his divorced
queen.

Then they sailed back to Norway, taking their wives
with them. For the women could not be torn from the
side of their husbands, either by distance of journey or by
dread of peril, but declared that they would stick to their
lords like a feather to something shaggy. They found that
Ragnar was dead, and that Kraka had already married one
Brak. Then they remembered the father's treasure, dug up
the money, and bore it off. But Erik's fame had gone before
him, and Gotar had learnt all his good fortune. Now when

1 Command over 100 men] ccnturionatam, Dan. hccrad, a tract con-
taining 100 men. — M.

BOOK FIVE. 179

Gotar learnt that he had come himself, he feared that his
immense self-confidence would lead him to plan the worst
against the Norwegians, and was anxious to take his wife
from him and marry him to his own daughter in her place :
for his queen had just died, and he was anxious to marry
the sister of Frode more than anyone. Erik, when he learnt of
his purpose, called his men together, and told them that his
fortune had not yet got off from the reefs. Also he said that
he saw, that as a bundle that was not tied by a band fell to
pieces, so likewise the heaviest punishment that was not con-
strained on a man by his own fault suddenly collapsed. They
had experienced this of late with Frode : for they saw how at
the hardest pass their innocence had been protected by the help
of the gods : and if they continued to preserve it they should
hope for like aid in their adversity. Next, they must pretend
flight for a little while, if they were attacked by Gotar, for so
they would have a juster plea for fighting. For they had
every right to thrust out the hand in order to shield the head
from peril. Seldom could a man carry to a successful end a
battle he had begun against the innocent ; so, to give them a
better plea for assaulting the enemy, he must be provoked to
.attack them first. Without more words he went home to visit [146 J
Brak. Then he turned to Gunwar, and asked her, in order to
test her fidelity, whether she had any love for Gotar, telling
her it was unworthy that a maid of royal lineage should be
bound to the bed of a man of the people. Then she began to
conjure him earnestly by the power of heaven to tell her
whether his purpose was true or feigned ? He said that he had
spoken seriously, and she cried : " And so thou art prepared to
bring on me the worst of shame by leaving me a widow,
whom thou lovedst dearly as a maid ! Common rumour often
speaks false, but I have been wrong in my opinion of thee.
I thought I had married a steadfast man ; I hoped his loyalty
was past question ; but now I find him to be more fickle than
the winds." Saying this, she wept abundantly. Dear to Erik-
was his wife's indignation ; presently he embraced her, and
said : " I wished to know how loyal thou wert to me. Nought

N 2

180 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

but death has the right to sever us, but Gotar means to steal
thee away, seeking thy love by robbery. When he has com-
mitted the theft, pretend it is done with thy goodwill; yet put
off' the wedding till he has given me his daughter in thy
place. When she has been granted, Gotar and I will hold our
marriage on the same day. And take care that thou prepare
rooms for our banqueting which have a common party-wall,
yet are separate ; lest perchance, if I were before thine eyes,
thou should st ruffle the king with thy lukewarm looks at
him. For this will be a most effective trick to baffle the wish
of the ravisher." Then he bade Brak lie in ambush not far
from the palace with a chosen band of his quickest men, that
he might help him at need.

Then he summoned Roller, and fled in his ship with his
wife and all his goods, in order to tempt the king out, pre-
tending panic. So, when he saw that the fleet of Gotar was
pressing him hard, he said : " Behold how the bow of guile
shooteth the shaft of treachery !" and instantly rousing his
sailors with the war-shout, he steered the ship about. Gotar
came close up to him and asked who was the pilot of the
ship, and he was told that it was Erik. He also shouted a
question whether he was the same man who by his marvellous
speaking could silence the eloquence of all other men. Erik,
when he heard this, replied that he had long since received
the surname of the "Shrewd-spoken", and that he had not won
the auspicious title for nothing. Then both went back to the
nearest shore, where Gotar, when he learnt the mission of
Erik, said that he wished for the sister of Frode, but would
rather offer his own daughter to Frode's envoy, that Erik
might not repent the passing of his own wife to another man.
[147] Thus it would not be unfitting for the fruit of the mission to
fall to the ambassador. Erik, he said, was delightful to him
as a son-in-law, if only he could win alliance with Frode
through Gunwar. Erik belauded the kindness of the king
and approved his judgment, declaring that he could not have
expected a greater thing from the immortal gods than what
was now offered him unasked. Still, he said, the king must

BOOK FIVE. 181

first discover Gunwar's own mind and choice. She accepted
the flatteries of the king with feigned goodwill, and seemed
to consent readily to his suit, but besought him to suffer
Erik's nuptials to precede hers ; because, if Erik's were ac-
complished first, there would be a better opportunity for
the king's ; but chiefly on this account, that, if she were to
marry again, she might not be disgusted at her new marriage-
troth by the memory of the old recurring. She also declared
it inexpedient for two sets of preparations to be confounded
in one ceremony. The king was prevailed upon by her
answers, and highly approved her requests. His constant
talks with Erik furnished him with a store of most fair-
shapen maxims, wherewith to rejoice and refresh his mind.
So, not satisfied with giving him his daughter in marriage,
he also made over to him the district of Lither,1 thinking that
their connection deserved some kindness. Now Kraka, whom
Erik, because of her cunning in witchcraft, had brought with
him on his travels, feigned weakness of the eyes, and muffled
up her face in her cloak, so that not a single particle of her
head was visible for recognition. When people asked her who
she was, she said that she was Gunwar's sister, child of the
same mother but a different father.

Now when they came to the dwelling of Gotar, the wedding-
feast of Alfhild (this was his daughter's name) was being held.
Erik and the king lay at meat in different rooms, with a
party-wall in common, and also entirely covered on the inside
with hanging tapestries. Gunwar sat by Gotar, but Erik sat
close between Kraka on the one side and Alfhild on the other.
Amid the merrymaking, he gradually drew a lath out of the
wall, and made an opening large enough to allow the passage
of a human body ; and thus, without the knowledge of the
guests, he made a space wide enough to go through. Then, in
the course of the feast, he began to question his betrothed
closely whether she would rather marry himself or Frode :

1 The district of Lither] Lirhar-fylki, according to Holder, is Lier, near
Drammen in Norway. The older commentators wrongly identify it with
Lister, a tract in Mandal.

182 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

especially since, if due heed were paid to matches, the daughter
of a king ought to go to the arms of one as noble as her-
self, so that the lowliness of one of the pair might not im-
pair the lordliness of the other. She said that she would
never marry against the permission of her father ; but he
[148] turned her aversion into compliance by promises that she
should be queen, and that she should be richer than all other
women, for she was captivated by the promise of wealth quite
as much as of glory. There is also a tradition that Kraka
turned the maiden's inclinations to Frode by a drink which she
mixed and gave to her.

Now Gotar, after the feast, in order to make the marriage-
mirth go fast and furious, went to the revel of Erik. As he
passed out, Gunwar, as she had been previously bidden,
went through the hole in the party-wall where the lath
had been removed, and took the seat next to Erik. Gotar
marvelled that she was sitting there by his side, and began to
ask eagerly how and why she had come there. She said that
she was Gunwar 's sister, and that the king was deceived by
the likeness of their looks. And when the king, in order to
look into the matter, hurried back to the royal room, Gun-
war returned through the back door by which she had come
and sat in her old place in the sight of all. Gotar, when he
saw her, could scarcely believe his eyes, and in the utmost
doubt whether he had recognised her aright, he retraced his
steps to Erik ; and there he saw before him Gunwar, who had
got back in her own fashion. And so, as often as he changed to
go from one hall to the other, he found her whom he sought in
either place. By this time the king was tormented by great
wonder at what was no mere likeness, but the very same face
in both places. For it semed flatly impossible that different
people should look exactly and undistinguishably alike. At
last, when the revel broke up, he courteously escorted his
daughter and Erik as far as their room, as the manner is at
weddings, and went back himself to bed elsewhere.

But Erik Buffered Alfhild, who was destined for Frode, to
lie apart, and embraced Gunwar as usual, thus outwitting the

BOOK FIVE. 183

king. So Gotar passed a sleepless night, revolving how he
had been apparently deluded with a dazed and wandering
mind : for it seemed to him no mere likeness of looks, but
sameness. Thus he was tilled with such wavering and doubt-
ful judgment, that though he really discerned the truth he
thought lie must have been mistaken. At last it flashed
across his mind that the wall might have been tampered with.
He gave orders that it should be carefully surveyed and
examined, but found no traces of a breakage : in fact, the
entire room seemed to be whole and unimpaired. For Erik,
early in the night, had patched up the damage of the broken
wall, that his trick might not be detected. Then the king
sent two men privily into the bedroom of Erik to learn the
truth, and bade them stand behind the hangings and note all
things carefully. They further received orders to kill Erik if
they found him with Gunwar. They went secretly into the
room, and, concealing themselves in the curtained corners, [149]
beheld Erik and Gunwar in bed together with arms entwined.
Thinking them only drowsy, they waited for their deeper sleep,
wishing to stay until a heavier slumber gave them a chance to
commit their crime. Erik snored lustily, and they knew it was
a sure sign that he slept soundly ; so they straightway came
forth witli drawn blades in order to butcher him. Erik was
awakened by their treacherous onset, and, seeing their swords
hanging over his head, called out the name of his stepmother,1
to which long ago he had been bidden to appeal when in peril ;
and he found a speedy help in his need. For his shield, which
hung aloft from the rafter, instantly fell and covered his
unarmed body, and, as if on purpose, covered it from impale-
ment by the cutthroats. He did not fail to make use of his
luck, but, snatching his sword, lopped off both feet of the
nearest of them. Gunwar, with equal energy, ran a spear
through the other: she had the body of a woman, but the
spirit of a man.

Thus Erik escaped the trap ; whereupon he went back to

1 His stepmother] Kraka. See above, p. 159.

184 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the sea and made ready to sail off by night. But Roller
sounded on his horn the signal for those who had been bidden
to watch close by, to break into the palace. When the king
heard this, he thought it meant that the enemy was upon
them, and made off hastily in a ship. Meanwhile Brak, and
those who had broken in with him, snatched up the goods
of the king, and got them on board Erik's ships. Almost half
the night was spent in pillaging. In the morning, when the
king found that they had fled, he prepared to pursue them,
but was advised by one of his friends not to plan anything
on a sudden, or do it in haste. His friend, indeed, tried to
convince him that he needed a larger equipment, and that it
was ill-advised to pursue the fugitives to Denmark with a
handful. But neither could this curb the king's impetuous
spirit ; it could not bear the loss ; for nothing had stung him
more than this, that his preparations to slay another should
have recoiled on his own men. So he sailed to the harbour
which is now called Omi.1 Here the weather began to be bad,
provision failed, and they thought it better, since die they
must, to die by the sword than by famine. And so the
sailors turned their hand against one another, and hastened
their end by mutual blows. The king with a few men took
to the cliffs and escaped. Lofty barrows still mark the scene
of the slaughter. Meanwhile Erik ended his voyage fairly,
and the wedding of Alfhild and Frode was kept.
[150] Then came tidings of an inroad of the Sclavs, and Erik
was commissioned to suppress it with eight ships, since Frode
as yet seemed inexperienced in war. Erik, loth ever to flinch
from any manly undertaking, gladly undertook the business,
and did it bravely. Learning that the pirates had seven
ships, he sailed up to them with only one of his own, ordering
the rest to be girt with timber parapets, and covered over
with pruned boughs of trees. Then he advanced to observe
the number of the enemy more fully, but when the Sclavs
pursued closely, he beat a quick retreat to his men. But the

1 Omi] ab Omi, conjectured to be the harbour once called i Aumum,
in the province of Jaederen (Stavanger).

BOOK FIVE. 185

enemy, blind to the trap, and as eager to take the fugitives,
rowed smiting the waters fast and incessantly. For the
ships of Erik could not be clearly distinguished, looking
like a leafy wood. The enemy, after venturing into a wind-
ing strait, suddenly saw themselves surrounded by the fleet
of Erik. First, confounded by the strange sight, they thought
that a wood was sailing ; and then they saw that guile lurked
under the leaves. Therefore, tardily repenting their rash-
ness, they tried to retrace their incautious voyage : but while
they were trying to steer about, they saw the enemy boarding
them. Erik, however, put his ship ashore, and slung stones
against the enemy from afar. Thus most of the Sclavs were
killed, and forty taken, who afterwards, under stress of bonds
and famine, and in strait of divers torments, gave up the
ghost.

Meantime Frode, in order to cross on an expedition into
Sclavia, had mustered a mighty fleet from the Danes, as well
as from neighbouring peoples. The smallest boat of this fleet
could carry twelve sailors, and be rowed by as many oars.
Then Erik, bidding his men await him patiently, went to tell
Frode the tidings of the defeat he had inflicted. As he sailed
along he happened to see a pirate ship aground on some
shallows ; and being wont to utter weighty words upon chance
occurrences, he said, " Obscure is the lot of the base-born, and
mean is the fortune of the lowly." Then he brought his ship
up close and destroyed the pirates, who were trying to get off
their own vessel with poles, and busily engrossed in saving
her. This accomplished, he made his way back to the king's
fleet ; and wishing to cheer Frode with a greeting that heralded
his victory, he said, " Hail to the maker of a most prosperous
peace ! "* The king prayed that his word might come true, and [151]
declared that the spirit of the wise man was prophetic. Erik
answered that he spoke truly, and that the petty victory
brought an omen of a greater one ; declaring that a presage of
great matters could often be got from trifles. Then the king

1 A most prosperous peace] This is the first suggestion of Frode's title.
The Peaceful, Fredeyod.

186 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

counselled him to scatter his force, and ordered the horsemen
of Jutland to go by the land way, while the rest of the army
went by the short sea-passage. But the sea was covered with
such a throng of vessels, that there were not enough harbours
to take them in, nor shores for them to encamp on, nor money
for their provisions ; while the land army is said to have been
so great that, in order to shorten the way, it levelled mountains,
made marshes passable, filled up pits with material, and the
hugest chasms by casting in great boulders.

Meanwhile Strunik the King of the Sclavs sent envoys to
ask for a truce : but Frode refused him time to equip himself,
saying that an enemy ought not to be furnished with a truce.
Moreover, he said, he had hitherto passed his life without
experience of war, and now he ought not to delay its begin-
ning by waiting in doubt : for the man that conducted his
first campaign successfully might hope for as good fortune in
the rest. For each side would take the augury afforded by
the first engagements as a presage of the combat ; since the
preliminary successes of Avar were often a prophecy of the
sequel. Erik commended the wisdom of the reply, declaring
that the game ought to be played abroad just as it had been
begun at home: meaning that the Danes had been challenged
by the Sclavs. After these words he fought a furious battle,
slew Strunik with the bravest of his race, and received the
surrender of the rest. Then Frode called the Sclavs together,
and proclaimed by a herald that any man among them who
had been trained to theft or plunder should be speedily
given up ; promising that he would reward the character of
such men with the highest honours. He also ordered that all
of them who were versed in evil arts should come forth to
have their reward. This offer pleased the Sclavs : and some
of them, tempted by their hopes of the gift, betrayed them-
selves with more avarice than judgment, before the others
could make them known. These were misled by such great
covetousness, that they thought less of shame than lucre, and
accounted as their glory what was really their guilt. When.
these had given themselves up of their own will, he said:

BOOK FIVE. 187

" Sclavs ! this is the pest from which you must clear your
land, yourselves." And straightway he ordered the exe-
cutioners to seize them, and had them fixed upon the highest
gallows by the hand of their own countrymen. The punishers
looked fewer than the punished. And thus the shrewd king,
by refusing to those who owned their guilt the pardon which [152]
he granted to the conquered foe, destroyed almost the entire
stock of the Sclavic race. Thus the longing for an undeserved
reward was visited with a deserved penalty, and the thirst for
an undue wage justly punished. I should think that these
men were rightly delivered to their doom, who brought the
peril on their own heads by speaking, when they could have
saved their lives by the protection of silence.

The king, exalted by the honours of his fresh victory, and
loth to seem less strong in justice than in battle, resolved to
remodel his army by some new laws, some of which are
retained by present usage, while others men have chosen to
abolish for new ones, (a) For he decreed, when the spoil was
divided, that each of the vanguard1 should receive a greater
share than the rest of the soldiery : while he granted all gold
that was taken to the generals (before whom the standards
were always borne in battle) on account of their rank ; wishing
the common soldiers to be content with silver. He ordered
that the arms should go to the champions, but the captured
ships should pass to the common people, as the due of those
who had the right of building and equipping vessels, (b) Also
he forbade that anyone should venture to lock up his house-
hold goods, as he would receive double the value of any losses
from the treasury of the king ; but if anyone thought fit to
keep it in locked coffers, he must pay the king a gold mark.
(c) He also laid down that anyone who spared a thief should
be punished as a thief. (d) Further, that the first man to

1 Each of the vanguard] primipilus quisque (so below) : possibly,
"each captain of a division". These are provisions which Saxo thinks
befit the king of the supposed age of peace, contemporary with the birth
of Christ. They rest upon old traditions of a great legal reformer, a
Danish Lycurgus of the past.

188 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

flee in battle should forfeit all common rights, (e) But when

he had returned into Denmark he wished to amend by good

measures any corruption caused by the evil practices of Grep1;

and therefore granted women free choice in marriage, so that

there might be no compulsory wedlock. And so he provided

by law that women should be held duly married to those

whom they had wedded without consulting their fathers.

(/) But if a free woman agreed to marry a slave, she must

fall to his rank, lose the blessing of freedom, and adopt the

standing of a slave, (g) He also imposed on men the statute

that they must marry any woman whom they had seduced.

(h) He ordained that adulterers should be deprived of a

member by the lawful husbands, so that continence might not

be destroyed by shameful sins, (i) Also he ordained that if

a Dane plundered another Dane, he should repay double, and

be held guilty of a breach of the peace, (k) And if any man

were to take to the house of another anything which he had

got by thieving, his host, if he shut the door of his house

behind the man, should incur forfeiture of all his goods, and

should be beaten in full assembly, being regarded as having

made himself guilty of the same crime. (I) Also, whatsoever

exile should turn enemy to his country, or bear a shield

[153] against his countrymen,2 should be punished with the loss of

life and goods, (m) But if any man, from a contumacious

spirit, were slack in fulfilling the orders of the king, he should

be punished with exile. For, on an occasion of any sudden and

urgent war, an arrow of wood, looking like iron,3 used to be

passed on everywhere from man to man as a messenger, (n)

But if any one of the commons went in front of the vanguard

in battle, he was to rise from a slave into a freeman, and from

a peasant into a nobleman ; but if he were nobly-born already,

he should be created a governor.4 So great a guerdon did

1 Evil practices of Grep] See above, p. 150, etc.

2 Bear a shield against his countrymen] inimicum civibus scutum
offerret, Dan. at fore avindskiold miod rigeb, an old legal phrase.

8 An arrow of wood looking like iron] Dan. vidiebrand.
4 Governor of a district] satrapa, Icel. lendrma'^r. — M.

BOOK FIVE. 180

valiant men earn of old ; and thus did the ancients think
noble rank the due of bravery. For it was thought that the
luck a man had should be set down to his valour, and not his
valour to his luck, (o) He also enacted that no dispute should
be entered on with a promise made under oath and a gage
deposited1 ; but whosoever requested another man to deposit a
gage against him should pay that man half a gold mark, on.
pain of severe bodily chastisement. For the king had fore-
seen that the greatest occasions of strife might arise from
the depositing of gages, (p) But he decided that any quarrel
whatsoever should be decided by the sword, thinking a combat
of weapons more honourable than one of words. But if either
of the combatants drew back his foot, and stepped out of the
ring of the circle previously marked, he was to consider himself
conquered, and suffer the loss of his case. But a man of the
people, if he attacked a champion on any score, should be
armed to meet him ; but the champion should only fight with
a truncheon an ell long, (q) Further, he appointed that if an
alien killed a Dane, his death should be redressed by the
slaying of two foreigners.

Meanwhile, Gotar, in order to punish Erik, equipped his
army for war : and Frode, on the other side, equipped a great
fleet to go against Norway. When both alike had put into
Rennes-Isle, Gotar, terrified by the greatness of Frode's
name, sent ambassadors to pray for peace. Erik said to them,
" Shameless is the robber who is the first to seek peace, or
ventures to offer it to the good. He who longs to win must
struggle : blow must counter blow, malice repel malice."

Gotar listened attentively to this from a distance, and then
said, as loudly as he could : " Each man fights for valour
according as he remembers kindness." Erik said to him : " I
have requited thy kindness by giving thee back counsel."
By this speech he meant that his excellent advice was worth
more than all manner of gifts. And, in order to show that

1 No dispute . . . gage deposited] Such as those of Gotwar and
Westmar with Erik, above, p. 171. There need be no reference to a
lawsuit.

190 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Gotar was ungrateful for the counsel he had received, he said :
[154] "When thou desiredst to take my life and my wife, thou didst
mar the look of thy fair example. Only the sword has the
right to decide between us." Then Gotar attacked the fleet of
the Danes ; he was unsuccessful in the engagement, and slain.
Afterwards Roller received his realm from Frode as a gift;
it stretched over seven provinces. Erik likewise presented
Roller with the province which Gotar had once bestowed upon
him. After these exploits Frode passed three years in com-
plete and tranquil peace.

Meanwhile the King of the Huns, when he heard that his
daughter had been put away, allied himself with Olm ar, King
of the Easterlings,1 and in two years equipped an armament
against the Danes. So Frode levied an army not only of
native Danes, but also of Norwegians and Sclavs. Erik,
whom he had sent to spy out the array of the enemy, found
Olmar, who had received the command of the fleet, not far
from Russia ; while the King of the Huns led the land forces.
He addressed Olmar thus :

" What means, prithee, this strong equipment of war ? Or
whither dost thou speed, King Olmar, mighty in thy fleet ?"

Olmar. "We are minded to attack the son of Fridleif. And
who art thou, whose bold lips ask such questions ?"

Erik. "Vain hope of conquering the unconquered hath filled
thy heart ; over Frode no man can prevail."

Olmar. " Whatsoever befalls, must once happen for the first
time ; and often enough the unexpected comes to pass."

By this saying he let him know that no man must put too
much trust in fortune. Then Erik rode up to inspect the army
of the Huns. As it passed by him, and he in turn by it, it
showed its vanguard to the rising and its rear to the setting sun.
So he asked those whom he met, who had the command of all
those thousands. Hun, the King of the Huns, happened to see
him, and heard that lie had undertaken to reconnoitre, and asked
[155] what was the name of the questioner. Erik said he was the man
who came everywhere and was found nowhere. Then the king,

1 Easterlings] Orientalium, inhabitants of W. Russia.

BOOK FIVE. 191

when an interpreter was brought, asked what work Frode was
about. Erik replied, " Frode never waits at home for a hostile
army, nor tarries in his house for his foe. For he who covets
the pinnacle of another's power must watcli and wake all night.
No man has ever won a victory by snoring, and no wolf has
ever found a carcass by lying asleep."

The king, perceiving that he was a cunning speaker of
choice maxims, said : " Here, perchance, is that Erik who, as I
have heard, accused my daughter falsely."

But Erik, when they were bidden to seize him instantly,
said that it was unseemly for one man to be dragged off
by many ; and by this saying he not only appeased the mind
of the king, but even inclined him to be willing to pardon him.
But it was clear that this impunity came more from cunning
than kindness ; for the chief reason why he was let go was
that he might terrify Frode by the report of their vast
numbers. When he returned, Frode bade him relate what he
had discovered, and he said that he had seen six kings each
with his fleet1 ; and that each of these fleets contained five
thousand ships, each ship being known to hold three hundred
rowers. Each millenary of the whole total he said consisted of
four wings : now, since the full number of a wing is three
hundred, he meant that a millenary should be understood to
contain twelve hundred men. When Frode wavered in doubt
what he could do against so many, and looked eagerly round
for reinforcements, Erik said : "Boldness helps the righteous : a
valiant dog must attack the bear : we want wolf-hounds, and
not little unwarlike birds." This said, he advised Frode to
muster his fleet. When it was drawn up they sailed off
against the enemy ; and so they fought and subdued the
islands lying between Denmark and the East; and as they
advanced thence, met some ships of the Butenian fleet. Frode
thought it shameful to attack such a handful, but Erik said :
*' We must seek food from the gaunt and lean. He who falls

1 Six kings each with his fleet] Grand total, 10,800,000 men, reckoning
(with Saxo) each " hundred" (seelcel. Diet. s. v. hundrafS) as equal to 120,
according to the Old Norse duodecimal system.

192 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

sliall seldom fatten, nor has that man the power to bite
whom the huge sack has devoured."1 By this warning he
cured the king of all shame about making an assault, and
presently induced him to attack a small number with a
throng ; for he showed him that advantage must be counted
before honour.

After this they went on to meet Olmar, who because of the
[156] slowness of his multitude preferred awaiting the enemy to
attacking it ; for the vessels of the Rutenians seemed dis-
organised, and, owing to their size, not so well able to row. But
not even did the force of his multitudes avail him. For the ex-
traordinary masses of the Rutenians were stronger in numbers
than in bravery, and yielded the victory to the stout handful
of the Danes. When Frode tried to return home, his voyage
encountered an unheard-of difficulty. For the crowds of dead
bodies, and likewise the fragments of shields and spearsr
bestrewed the entire gulf of the sea, and tossed on the tide, so
that the harbours were not only straitened, but stank. The
vessels stuck, hampered amid the corpses. They could neither
thrust off with oars, nor drive away with poles, the rotting
carcasses that floated around, or prevent, when they had put
one away, another rolling up and driving against the fleet.
You would have thought that a war had arisen with the
dead, and there was a strange combat with the lifeless.

So Frode summoned the nations which he had conquered,
and enacted (a) that any father of a family who had fallen
in that war should be buried with his horse and all his
arms and decorations. And if any body-snatcher, in his
abominable covetousness, made an attempt on him, he was to
suffer for it, not only with his life, but also with the loss of
burial for his own body ; he should have no barrow and no
funeral. For he thought it just that he who despoiled
another's ashes should be granted no burial, but should repeat

1 He who falls . . . has devoured] The moral of the first clause is to
fell your enemy so that he may not thrive ; of the second, that the beast
safely in the sack [i.e., the enemy in your power] cannot bite: Icel. Ekki
bitr \>at i belg leggr. Saxo renders bclg by foil is.

HOOK FIVE. L93

in his own person the fate he had inflicted on another. He
appointed that the body of a centurion or governor1 should
receive funeral on a pyre built of his own ship. He ordered
that the bodies of every ten pilots2 should be burnt together
with a single ship, but that every earl3 or king that was killed
should be put on his own ship and burnt with it. He wished
this nice attention to be paid in conducting the funerals of the
slain, because he wished to prevent indiscriminate obsequies.
By this time all the kings of the Russians except Olmar and
Dag had fallen in battle, (b) He also ordered the Russians to
conduct their warfare in imitation of the Danes, and (c) never
to marry a wife without buying her. He thought that bought
marriages would have more security, believing that the troth
which was sealed with a price was the safest, (d) Moreover,
anyone who durst attempt the violation of a virgin was to be
punished with the severance of his bodily parts, or else to
requite the wrong of his intercourse with a thousand talents.
(e) He also enacted that any man that applied himself to
war, who aspired to the title of tried soldier, should attack
a single man, should stand the attack of two, should only [157]
withdraw his foot a little to avoid three, but should not blush
to flee from four. (/) He also proclaimed that a new custom
concerning the pay of the soldiers should be observed by the
princes under his sway. He ordered that each native soldier
and house-carl4 should be presented in the winter season
with three marks5 of silver, a common or hired soldier with
two, a private soldier who had finished his service6 with only

1 Centurion or governor] centurionis vel satrapae. M. thinks that
Saxo means the same official by these two words, namely the governor
of a district.

2 Pilots] gubernatorum. Perhaps ''captains". Compare the account
of Harald Hyldetan's death in Bk. vm. , and p. 166. 3 Earl] ducem.

4 Native soldier and house-carl] patrium domesticumque militem. See
below, note 6.

5 Three marks (talenta) of silver] ' ' nolumus computationem huius summae
instituere ; haec enim omnia pro modido aetatis aureae instituta sunt" — M.

ti Who had finished his service] militiae laboribus defunctum. This
is the plain meaning ; but M. interprets quemvis e plcbe ad militiam

194 SAXO GHAMMATICUS.

one. By this law he did injustice to valour, reckoning the
rank of the soldiers and not their courage ; and he was open
to the charge of error in the matter, because he set familiar
acquaintance above desert.

After this the king asked Erik whether the army of the
Huns was as large as the forces of Olimar, and Erik answered
in the following sons; :

" By Hercules, I came on a countless throng, a throng that
neither earth nor wave could hold. Thick flared all their
camp-fires, and the whole wood blazed up ; the flame be-
tokened a numberless array. The earth sank under the fray-
ing of the horse-hoofs ; the creaking waggons rattled swiftly.
The wheels rumbled, the driver rode upon the winds, so
that the chariots sounded like thunder. The earth hardly
bore the throngs of men-at-arms, speeding on confusedly :
they trod it, but it could not bear their weight. I thought
that the air crashed and the earth was shaken, so mighty was
the motion of the stranger army. For I saw fifteen standards
flickering at once ; each of them has a hundred1 lesser stand-
ards, and after each of these could have been seen twenty ;
and the captains in their order were equal in number to the
standards."

Now when Frode asked wherewithal he was to resist so
many, Erik instructed him that he must return home and
suffer the enemy first to perish of their own hugeness. His
counsel was obeyed, the advice being approved as heartily as it
was uttered. But the Huns went on through pathless deserts,
and, finding provisions nowhere, began to run the risk of
general starvation ; for it was a huge and swampy district,
and nothing could be found to relieve their want. At last,

evocatnm, qui per aestatem vel in castris vel in classe meruerat ; thus being
compelled to establish a distinction between privatns of this sentence,
and the "native soldier" of the previous one ; whom he has to identify
with the house-carl (domesticus miles), making -qne equivalent to "or".

1 A hundred] If we are to press the poet's arithmetic, the centum,
would probably represent the O. Norse hundraft, or a hundred and twenty ;
thus bringing the mythical total up to 30,000.

BOOK FIVE. 195

when the beasts of burden had been cut down and eaten,
they began to scatter, lacking carriages as much as food.
Now their straying from the road was as perilous to them
as their hunger. Neither horses nor asses were spared, nor
did they refrain from filthy garbage. At last they did not
even spare dogs: to dying men every abomination was law- [158]
ful ; for there is nothing too hard for the bidding of extreme
need. At last, when they were worn out with hunger,
there came a general mortality. Bodies were carried out
for burial without end, for all feared to perish, and none
pitied the perishing. Fear indeed had cast out humanity.
So first the divisions deserted from the king little by little ;
and then the army melted away by companies. He was also
deserted by the prophet Ygg,1 a man of unknown age, which
was prolonged beyond the human span : this man went as
a deserter to Frode, and told him of all the preparations of
the Huns.

Meanwhile Hedin, prince of a considerable tribe of the
Norwegians, approached the fleet of Frode with a hundred
and fifty vessels. Choosing twelve out of these, he proceeded
to cruise nearer, signalling the approach of friends by a shield
raised on the mast. He thus greatly augmented the forces of
the king, and was received into his closest friendship. A
mutual love afterwards arose between this man and Hilda,
the daughter of Hogni, a chieftain of the Jutes, and a maiden
of most eminent renown. For, though they had not yet seen
one another, each had been kindled by the other's glory.
But when they had a chance of beholding one another, neither
could look away ; so steadfast was the love that made their
eyes linger.

Meanwhile, Frode distributed his soldiers through the
towns, and carefully gathered in the materials needed for the
winter supplies ; but even .so he could not maintain his army,
with its burden of expense : and plague fell on him almost
as great as the destruction that met the Huns. Therefore, to

1 Ygg] Ug<)erus, a name of Odin.

196 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

prevent the influx of foreigners, he sent a fleet to the Elbe to
take care that nothing should cross ; the admirals were Revil
and Mevil. When the winter broke up, Hedin and Hogni
resolved to make a roving-raid together ; for Hogni did not
know that his partner was in love with his daughter. Now
Hogni was of unusual stature, and stiff in temper ; while
Hedin was very comely, but short. Also, when Frode saw
that the cost of keeping up his army grew daily harder to
bear, he sent Roller to Norway, Olmar to Sweden, King Onef
and Glomer, a rover captain, to the Orkneys for supplies, each
with his own forces. Thirty kings followed Frode, and were
[159] his friends or vassals. But when Hun heard that Frode had
sent away his forces he mustered another and a fresh army.
But Hogni betrothed his daughter to Hedin, after they had
sworn to one another that whichever of them should perish
by the sword should be avenged by the other.

In the autumn, the men in search of supplies came back,
but they were richer in trophies than in food. For Roller had
made tributary the provinces Sundmor and Nordmor, after
slaying Arthor1 their king. But Olmar conquered Thor the
Long, the King of the Jemts and the Helsings, with two other
captains of no less power, and also took Esthonia and Kur-
land, and the isles that fringe Sweden ; thus he was a most
renowned conqueror of savage lands. So he brought back 700
ships, thus doubling the numbers of those previously taken out.
Onef and Glomer, Hedin and Hogni, won victories over the
Orkneys, and returned with 900 ships. And by this time
revenues had been got in from far and wide, and there were
ample materials gathered by plunder to recruit their resources.
They had also added twenty kingdoms to the sway of Frode,
whose kings, added to the thirty named before, fought on the
side of the Danes. Thus trusting in their strength, they
engaged with the Huns. Such a carnage broke out on the
first day of this combat that the three chief rivers of Russia

1 Arthor] Arthorius, rather the Norae name Arnthor, than any
allusion to Arthur.

BOOK FIVE. 197

were bestrewn with a kind of bridge of corpses, and could
be crossed and passed over. Also the traces of the massacre
spread so wide that for the space of three days' ride the
ground was to be seen covered with human carcasses. So,
when the battle had been seven days prolonged, King Hun
fell ; and his brother of the same name, when he saw the line
of the Huns giving way, without delay surrendered himself
and his company. In that war 170 kings, who were either
Huns or fighting amongst the Huns, surrendered to the king.
This great number Erik had comprised in his previous de-
scription of the standards, when he was giving an account
of the multitude of the Huns in answer to the questions of
Frode. So Frode summoned the kings to assembly, and im-
posed a rule upon them that they should all live under one
and the same law. Now he set Olmar over Holmgard ; Onef
over Conogard ; and he bestowed Saxony on Hun his prisoner,
and gave Revil the Orkneys. To one Dimar he allotted
the management of the provinces of the Helsings, of the
Jarnbers, and the Jemts, as well as both Laplands; while on
Dag he bestowed the government of Esthonia. Each of these
men he burdened with fixed conditions of tribute, thus
making allegiance a condition of his kindness. So the realms
of Frode embraced Russia on the east, and on the west were [160]
bounded by the Rhine.

Meantime certain slanderous tongues accused Hedin to
Hogni of having tempted and defiled his daughter before the
rites of betrothal ; which was then accounted an enormous
crime by all nations. So the credulous ears of Hogni drank
in this lying report, and with his fleet he attacked Hedin, who
was collecting the king's dues among the Slavs ; there was
an engagement, and Hogni was beaten, and went to Jutland.
And thus the peace instituted by Frode was disturbed by
intestine war, and natives were the first to disobey the king's
law. Frode, therefore, sent men to summon them both at
once, and inquired closely what was the reason of their
feud. When he had heard it, he gave judgment according to
the terms of the law he had enacted ; but when he saw tha

198 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

even this could not reconcile them (for the father obstinately
demanded his daughter back), he decreed that the quarrel
should be settled by the sword — it seemed the only remedy
for ending the dispute. The fight began, and Hedin was
grievously wounded ; but when he began to lose blood and
bodily strength, he received unexpected mercy from his enemy.
For though Hogni had an easy chance of killing him, yet,
pitying his youth and beauty, he constrained his cruelty to
give way to clemency. And so, loth to cut off a stripling who
was panting at his last gasp, he refrained his sword. For
of old it was accounted shameful to deprive of his life one
who was ungrown or a weakling ; so closely did the antique
bravery of champions take heed of all that could incline them
to modesty. So Hedin, with the help of his men, was taken
back to his ship, saved by the kindness of his foe.

In the seventh year after, these same men began to fight
on Hedin's isle, and wounded each other so that they died.
Hogni would have been lucky if he had shown severity rather
than compassion to Hedin when he had once conquered him.
They say that Hilda longed so ardently for her husband, that
she is believed to have conjured up the spirits of the com-
batants by her spells in the night in order to renew the war.

At the same time came to pass a savage war between Alrik,
king of the Swedes, and Gestiblind, king of the Goths. The
latter, being the weaker, approached Frode as a suppliant,
willing, if he might get his aid, to surrender his kingdom and
himself. He soon received the aid of Skalk, the Skanian, and
Erik, and came back with reinforcements. He had determined
[161] to let loose his attack on Alrik, but Erik thought that he
should first assail his son Gunthion. governor of the men of
Wermland and Solongs,1 declaring that the storm-weary
mariner ought to make for the nearest shore, and moreover
that the rootless trunk seldom burgeoned. So he made an
attack, wherein perished Gunthion, whose tomb records his
name. Alrik, when he heard of the destruction of his son,

1 Solongs] Dwellers in the Soleyar, named below.

BOOK FIVE. 199

hastened to avenge him, and when he had observed his
enemies, he summoned Erik, and, in a secret interview, re-
counted the leagues of their fathers, imploring him to refuse
to fight for Gestiblind. This Erik steadfastly declined, and
Alrik then asked leave to fight Gestiblind, thinking that a
duel was better than a general engagement. But Erik said
that Gestiblind was unfit for arms by reason of old age,
pleading his bad health, and above all his years ; but offered
himself to fight in his place, explaining that it would be
shameful to decline a duel on behalf of the man for whom he
had come to make a war. Then they fought without delay :
Alrik was killed, and Erik was most severely wounded ; it
was hard to find remedies, and he did not for a long time
recover health. Now a false report had come to Frode that
Erik had fallen, and was tormenting the king's mind with
sore grief ; but Erik dispelled this sadness with his welcome
return ; indeed, he reported to Frode that by his efforts
Sweden, Wermland, Helsingland1 and the islands of the Sun
[Soleyar] had been added to his realm. Frode straightway
made him king of the nations he had subdued, and also
granted to him Helsingland with the two Laplands, Finland
and Esthonia, under a yearly tribute. None of the Swedish
kings before him was called by the name of Erik, but the
title passed from him to the rest.

At the same time Alf was king in Hethmark, and he had a
son Asmund. Biorn ruled in the province of Wik, and had a
son Aswit. Asmund was engaged on an unsuccessful hunt,
and while he was proceeding either to stalk the game with
dogs or to catch it in nets, a mist happened to come on. By
this he was separated from his snarers on a lonely track,
wandered over the dreary ridges, and at last, destitute of horse
and clothing, ate fungi and mushrooms, and wandered on aim-
lessly till he came to the dwelling of King Biorn. Moreover,

1 Helsingland] M. brackets this word, thinking it a gloss, on the
ground that Helsingland has been already named as conquered and made
tributary by Olmar ; but inconsistency in a story like this is seldom
sufficient ground for doubting a reading.

200 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the son of the king and he, when they had lived together a
short while, swore by every vow, in order to ratify the friend-
ship which they observed to one another, that whichever of
[162] them lived longest should be buried with him who died. For
their fellowship and love were so strong, that each determined
he would not prolong his days when the other was cut off by
death.

After this Frode gathered together a host of all his subject
nations, and attacked Norway with his fleet, Erik being bidden
to lead the land force. For, after the fashion of human greed,
the more he gained the more he wanted, and would not suffer
even the dreariest and most rugged region of the world to
escape this kind of attack ; so much is increase of wealth
wont to encourage covetousness. So the Norwegians, casting
away all hope of self-defence, and losing all confidence in
their power to revolt, began to flee for the most part to
Halogaland. The maiden Stikla also withdrew from her
country to save her chastity, preferring the occupations of
war to those of wedlock.

Meanwhile Aswid died of an illness, and was consigned writh
his horse and dog to a cavern in the earth. And Asmund,
because of his oath of friendship, had the courage to be buried
with him, food being put in for him to eat.

Now just at this time Erik, who had crossed the uplands
with his army, happened to draw near the barrow of Aswid ;
and the Swedes, thinking that treasures were in it, broke
the hill open with mattocks, and saw disclosed a cave deeper
than they had thought. To examine it, a man was wanted,
who would lower himself on a hanging rope tied round him.
One of the quickest of the youths w^as chosen by lot ; and
Asmund, when he saw him let down in a basket following
a rope, straightway cast him out and climbed into the basket.
Then he gave the signal to draw him up to those above who
were standing by and controlling the rope. They drew in
the basket in the hopes of a great treasure ; but when they
saw the unknown figure of the man they had taken out, they
were scared by his extraordinary look, and, thinking that
the dead had come to life, flung down the rope and fled all

BOOK FIVE. 201

ways. For Asmund looked ghastly and seemed to be covered
as with the corruption of the charnel. He tried to recall the
fugitives, and began to clamour that they were wrongfully
afraid of a living man. And when Erik saw him, he marvelled
most at the aspect of his bloody face : the blood flowing forth
and spurting over it. For Aswid had come to life in the nights,
and in his continual struggles had wrenched off his left ear ;
and there was to be seen the horrid sight of a raw and un-
healed scar. And when the bystanders bade him tell how he
had got such a wound, he began to speak thus : —

"Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless? Surely [163]
every live man fades among the dead. Evil to the lonely man,
and burdensome to the single, remains every dwelling in the
world.1 Hapless are they whom chance hath bereft of human
help. The listless night of the cavern, the darkness of the
ancient den, have taken all joy from my eyes and soul. The
ghastly ground, the crumbling barrow, and the heavy tide of
filthy things have marred the grace of my youthful counten-
ance, and sapped my wonted pith and force. Besides all this,
I have fought with the dead, enduring the heavy burden and
grievous peril of the wrestle ; Aswid rose again and fell on
me with rending nails, by hellish might renewing ghastly
warfare after he was ashes.

" Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless ? Surely
every live man fades among the dead.

" By some strange enterprise of the power of hell the spirit
of Aswid was sent up from the nether world, and with cruel
tooth eats the fleet-footed [horse], and has given his dog to
his abominable jaws. Not sated with devouring the horse or
hound, he soon turned his swift nails upon me, tearing my
cheek and taking off' my ear. Hence the hideous sight of
my slashed countenance, the blood-spurts in the ugly wound.
Yet the bringer of horrors did it not unscathed ; for soon I
cut off his head with my steel, and impaled his guilty carcase
with a stake.

1 Every dwelling in the world] omnis domus orbis. St. explains
" the whole dwelling of this world", tasta mundi fabrica, which is
strained.

202 SAXO QRAMMATICUS.

" Why stand ye aghast who see me colourless ? Surely
every live man fades among the dead."

Frode had by this taken his fleet over to Halogaland ; and
here, in order to learn the numbers of his host, which seemed
to surpass all bounds and measure that could be counted, he
ordered his soldiers to pile up a hill, one stone being cast upon
the heap for each man. The enemy also pursued the same
method of numbering their host, and the hills are still to be
seen to convince the visitor. Here Frode joined battle with
the Norwegians, and the day was bloody. At nightfall
both sides determined to retreat. As daybreak drew near,
[164] Erik, who had come across the land, came up and advised the
king to renew the battle. In this war the Danes suffered sucli
slaughter that out of 3,000 ships only 170 are supposed to
have survived. The Northmen, however, were exterminated
in such a mighty massacre, that (so the story goes) there were
not men left to till even a fifth of their villages.

Frode, now triumphant, wished to renew peace among all
nations, that he might ensure each man's property from the
inroads of thieves and now ensure peace to his realms after
war. So he hung one bracelet on a crag which is called Frode's
Rock, and another in the district of Wig, after he had addressed
the assembled Norwegians ; threatening that these necklaces
should serve to test the honesty which he had decreed, and
threatening that if they were niched punishment should fall
on all the governors of the district. And thus, sorely im-
perilling the officers, there was the gold unguarded, hanging
up full in the parting of the roads, and the booty, so easy to
plunder, a temptation to all covetous spirits, (a) Frode also
enacted that seafarers should freely use oars wherever they
found them ; while to those who wished to cross a river he
granted free use of the horse which they found nearest to the
ford. He decreed that they must dismount from this horse
when its fore feet only touched land and its hind feet were
still washed by the waters. For he thought that services
such as these should rather be accounted kindness than
wrongdoing. Moreover, he ordained that whosoever durst

HOOK FIVE. 203

try and make further use of the horse after he had crossed
the river should be condemned to death. (6) He also ordered
that no man should hold his house or his coffer under lock
and key, or should keep anything guarded by bolts, promis-
ing that all losses should be made good threefold, (c) Also,
he appointed that it was lawful to claim as much of another
man's food for provision as would suffice for a single supper.
If anyone exceeded this measure in his takings, he was to be
held guilty of theft. Now, a thief (so he enacted) was to be
hung up with a sword passed through his sinews, with a wolf
fastened by his side, so that the wicked man might look like
the savage beast, both being punished alike. He also had the
same penalty extended to accomplices in thefts. Here he
passed seven most happy years of peace, begetting a son Alf
and a daughter Eyfura.1

It chanced that in these days Arngrim, a champion of
Sweden, who had challenged, attacked, and slain Skalk the
Skanian because he had once robbed him of a vessel, came to [165]
Frode. Elated beyond measure with his deed, he ventured to
sue for Frode's daughter; but, rinding the king deaf to him,
he asked Erik, who was ruling Sweden, to help him. Erik
advised him to win Frode's goodwill by some illustrious
service, and to fight against Egther, the King of Permland,
and Thengil, the King of Finmark, since they alone seemed
to repudiate the Danish rule, while all men else sub-
mitted. Without delay he led his army to that country.
Now, the Finns are the uttermost peoples of the North, who
have taken a portion of the world that is barely habitable to
till and dwell in. They are very keen spearmen, and no
nation has a readier skill in throwing the javelin. They fight
with large, broad arrows ; they are addicted to the study of
spells ; they are skilled hunters. Their habitation is not
fixed, and their dwellings are migratory : they pitch and
settle wherever they have caught game. Riding on curved
boards [skees or snow-skates], they run over ridges thick

1 Eyfura] Ofura. The correction, adopted from Gheysmer, for the
Osura of ed. pr.

204 SAXO GRAMMA.TICUS.

with snow. These men Arngrim attacked, in order to win
renown, and he crushed them. They fought with ill success ;
hut, as they were scattering in flight, they cast three pebbles
behind them, which they caused to appear to the eyes of the
enemy like three mountains. Arngrim's eyes were dazzled
and deluded, and he called back his men from the pursuit of the
enemy, fancying that he was checked by a barrier of mighty
rocks. Again, when they engaged and were beaten on the
morrow, the Finns cast snow upon the ground and made it
look like a mighty river. So the Swedes, whose eyes were
utterly deluded, were deceived by their misjudgment, for it
seemed the roaring of an extraordinary mass of waters. Thus,
the conqueror dreading the unsubstantial phantom of the
waters, the Finns managed to escape. They renewed the war
again on the third day ; but there was no effective means of
escape left any longer, for when they saw that their lines
were falling back, they surrendered to the conqueror. Arngrim
imposed on them the following terms of tribute : that the
number of the Finns should be counted, and that, after the
lapse of [every] three years, every ten of them should pay
a carriageful of deer-skins by way of assessment. Then he
challenged and slew in single combat Egther, the captain
of the men of Permland, imposing on the men of Perm-
land the condition that each of them should pay one skin.
Enriched with these spoils and trophies, he returned to Erik,
who went with him into Denmark, and poured loud praises of
the young warrior into the ear of Frode, declaring that he
who had added the ends of the world to his realm deserved
[166] his daughter. Then Frode, considering his splendid deserts,
thought it was not amiss to take for son-in-law a man who
had won wide-resounding fame by such a roll of noble deeds.

Arngrim had twelve sons by Eyfura, whose names I here
subjoin : Brand,1 Biarbe, Brodd, Hiarrande ; Tand, Tyrfing,

1 Brand, etc.] These names fall into three sets of four, each of which
constitutes an Icelandic verse of a familiar type, with two alliteiations in
the first half and one in the second. They first occur in the list in
Hyndlo-ljod, Corp. Poet. Bor., i, 230 ; and also in Orvar-Odd's Saga, with
variations in the first four.

BOOK FIVE. 205

two Haddings ; Hiortuar, Hiartuar, Hrano, Anganty. These
followed the business of sea-roving from their youth up ;
and they chanced to sail all in one ship to the island Samso,
where they found lying off the coast two ships belonging to
Hialmar and Arvarodd [Arrow-Odd] the rovers. These ships
they attacked and cleared of rowers ; but, not knowing whether
they had cut down the captains, they fitted the bodies of the
slain to their several thwarts, and found that those whom they
sought were missing. At this they were sad, knowing that the
victory they had won was not worth a straw, and that their
safety would run much greater risk in the battle that was to
come. In fact, Hialmar and Arvarodd, whose ships had been
damaged by a storm, which had torn off their rudders, went
into a wood to hew another ; and, going round the trunk with
their axes, pared down the shapeless timber until the huge
stock assumed the form of a marine implement. This they
shouldered, and were bearing it down to the beach, ignorant
of the disaster of their friends, when the sons of Eyfura, reek-
ing with the fresh blood of the slain, attacked them, so that
they two had to fight many ; the contest was not even equal,
for it was a band of twelve against two. But the victory
did not go according to the numbers. For all the sons of
Eyfura were killed ; Hialmar was slain by them, but Arvarodd
gained the honours of victory, being the only survivor left by
fate out of all that band of comrades. He, with an incredible
effort, poised the still shapeless hulk of the rudder, and drove
it so strongly against the bodies of his foes that, with a single
thrust of it, he battered and crushed all twelve. And so,
though they were rid of the general storm of war, the band of
rovers did not yet quit the ocean.

This it was that chiefly led Frode to attack the West, for
his one desire was the spread of peace. So he summoned
Erik, and mustered a fleet of all the kingdoms that did
him allegiance, and sailed to Britain with numberless ships.
But the king of that island, perceiving that he was unequal
in force (for the ships seemed to cover the sea), went to Frode,
affecting to surrender, and not only began to flatter his great- [167]

206 SAXO GBAMMATicOS.

ness, but also promised to the Danes, the conquerors of nations,
the submission of himself and of his country ; proffering taxes,
assessment, tribute, what they would. Finally, he gave them
a hospitable invitation. Frode was pleased with the courtesy
of the Briton, though his suspicions of treachery were kept
by so ready and unconstrained a promise of everything, so
speedy a surrender of the enemy before fighting ; such offers
being seldom made in good faith. They were also troubled
with alarm about the banquet, fearing that as drunkenness
came on their sober wits might be entangled in it, and attacked
by hidden treachery. So few guests were bidden, moreover,
that it seemed unsafe for them to accept the invitation ; and
it was further thought foolish to trust their lives to the
good faith of an enemy whom they did not know. And
when the king found their minds thus wavering he again
approached Frode, and invited him to the banquet with 2,400
men ; having before bidden him to come to the feast with
1,200 nobles. Frode was encouraged by the increase in the
number of guests, and was able to go to the banquet with greater
inward confidence ; but he could not yet lay aside his suspi-
cions, and privily caused men to scour the interior and let him
know quickly of any treachery which they might espy. On
this errand they went into the forest, and, coming upon the
array of an armed encampment belonging to the forces of the
Britons, they halted in doubt, but hastily retraced their steps
when the truth was apparent. For the tents were dusky in
colour, and muffled in a sort of pitchy coverings, that they
might not catch the eye of anyone who came near. When
Frode learned this, he arranged a counter-ambuscade with
a strong force of nobles, that he might not go heedlessly to
the banquet, and be cheated of timely aid. They went into
hiding, and he warned them that the note of the trumpet was
the signal for them to bring assistance. Then with a select
band, lightly armed, he went to the banquet. The hall was
decked with regal splendour ; it was covered all round with
crimson hangings of marvellous rich handiwork. A curtain
of purple dye adorned the panelled walls. The flooring

BOOK FIVE. 207

was bestrewn with bright mantles, which a man would fear
to trample on. Up above was to be seen the twinkle of
many lanterns, the gleam of lamps lit with oil ; and the
censers poured forth fragrance whose sweet vapour was laden
with the choicest perfumes. The whole way was blocked by [168]
the tables loaded with good things; and the places for reclining
were decked with gold-embroidered couches ; the seats were
full of pillows. The majestic hall seemed to smile upon the
guests, and nothing could be noticed in all that pomp either
inharmonious to the eye or offensive to the smell. In the
midst of the hall stood a great butt ready for refilling the
goblets, and holding an enormous amount of liquor ; enough
could be drawn from it for the huge revel to drink its fill.
Servants, dressed in purple, bore golden cups, and courteously
did the office of serving the drink, pacing in ordered ranks.
Nor did they fail to offer the draught in the horns of the
wild ox.1 The feast glittered with golden bowls, and was
laden with shining goblets, many of them studded with flash-
ing jewels. The place was filled with an immense luxury ;
the tables groaned with the dishes, and the bowls brimmed
over with divers liquors. Nor did they use wine pure and
simple, but, with juices sought far and wide, composed a
nectar of many flavours. The dishes glistened with delicious
foods, being filled mostly with the spoils of the chase ;
though the flesh of tame animals was not lacking either. The
natives took care to drink more sparingly than the guests ;
for the latter felt safe, and were tempted to make an orgie ;
while the others, meditating treachery, had lost all tempta-
tion to be drunken. So the Danes, who, if I may say so with
my country's leave, were seasoned to drain the bowl against
each other, took quantities of wine. The Britons, when they
saw that the Danes were very drunk, began gradually to slip
away from the banquet, and, leaving their guests within the
hall, made immense efforts, first to block the doors of the palace
by applying bars and all kinds of obstacles, and then to set

1 Wild ox [bubalinorum : the great-horned wild ox is meant.

208 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

fire to the house. The Danes were penned inside the hall,
and when the fire began to spread, battered vainly at the
doors ; but they could not get out, and soon attempted to make
a sally by assaulting the wall. And the Angles, when they saw
that it was tottering under the stout attack of the Danes,
began to shove against it on their side, and to prop the
staggering pile by the application of large blocks on the out-
side, to prevent the wall being shattered and releasing the
prisoners. But at last it yielded to the stronger hand of the
Danes, whose efforts increased with their peril ; and those
pent within could sally out with ease. Then Frode bade
the trumpet strike in, to summon the band that had been
posted in ambush ; and these, roused by the note of the clang-
ing bugle, caught the enemy in their own trap : for the King
of the Britons, with countless hosts of his men, was utterly
[169] destroyed. Thus the band helped Frode doubly, being both
the salvation of his men and the destruction of his enemies.

Meantime the renown of the Danish bravery spread far,
and moved the Irish to strew iron calthrops on the ground, in
order to make their land harder to invade, and forbid access
to their shores. Now the Irish use an armour which is light
and easy to procure. They crop the hair close with razors, and
shave all the hair off the back of the head, that they may not
be seized by it when they run away. They also turn the
points of their spears towards the assailant, and deliberately
point their sword against the pursuer ; and they generally
fling their lances behind their back, being more skilled at
conquering by flight than by fighting. Hence, when you
fancy that the victory is yours, then is the moment o£ danger.
But Frode was wary and not rash in his pursuit of the foe
who fled so treacherously, and he routed Kervil [Cearbal], the
leader of the nation, in battle. Kervil's brother survived, but
lost heart for resistance, and surrendered his country to the
king [Frode], who distributed among his soldiers the booty he
had won, to show himself free from all covetousness and
excessive love of wealth, and only ambitious to gain honour.
After the triumphs in Britain and the spoiling of the Irish

BOOK FIVE. 209

they went back to Denmark ; and for thirty years there was
a pause from all warfare. At this time the Danish name
became famous over the whole world almost for its extra-
ordinary valour. Frode, therefore, desired to prolong and
establish for ever the lustre of his empire, and made it
his first object to inflict severe treatment upon thefts and
brigandage, feeling these were domestic evils and intestine
plagues, and that if the nations were rid of them they would
come to enjoy a more tranquil life ; so that no ill-will should
mar and hinder the continual extension of peace. He also
took care that the land should not be devoured by any
plague at home when the enemy was at rest, and that in-
testine wickedness should not encroach when there was peace
abroad. At last he ordered that in Jutland, the chief district
of his realm, a golden bracelet, very heavy, should be set
up on the highways : wishing by this magnificent prize to
test the honesty which he had enacted. Now, though the
minds of the dishonest were vexed with the provocation it
furnished, and the souls of the evil tempted, yet the un-
questioned dread of danger prevailed. For so potent was
the majesty of Frode, that it guarded even gold that was
thus exposed to pillage, as though it were fast with bolts and
bars. The strange device brought great glory upon its in- [170]
ventor. After dealing destruction everywhere, and gaining
famous victories far and wide, he resolved to bestow quiet on
all men, that the cheer of peace should follow the horrors
of war, and the end of slaughter might be the beginning of
safety. He further thought that for the same reason all
men's property should be secured to them by a protective
decree, so that what had been saved from a foreign enemy
might not find a plunderer at home.

About the same time, the Author of our general salvation,
coming to the earth in order to save mortals, bore to put on
the garb of mortality ; at which time the tires of war were
quenched, and all the lands were enjoying the calmest and
most tranquil peace. It has been thought that the peace then
shed abroad .so widely, so even and uninterrupted over the

210 SAXO fJllAMMATICUS.

whole world, attended not so much an earthly rule as that
divine birth ; and that it was a heavenly provision that this
extraordinary gift of time should he a witness to the presence
of Him who created all times.

Meantime a certain matron, skilled in sorcery, who trusted
in her art more than she feared the severity of the king,
tempted the covetousness of her son to make a secret effort
for the prize ; promising him impunity, since Frode was
almost at death's door, his body failing, and the remnant of
his doting spirit feeble. To his mother's counsels he objected
the greatness of the peril ; but she bade him take better hope,
declaring, that either a sea-cow should have a calf, or that the
king's vengeance should be baulked by some other chance.
By this speech she banished her son's fears, and made him
obey her advice. When the deed was done, Frode, stung
by the affront, rushed with the utmost heat and fury to raze
the house of the matron, sending men on to arrest her and
bring her with her children. This the woman foreknewr, and
deluded her enemies by a trick, changing from the shape
of a woman into that of a mare. When Frode came up
she took the shape of a sea-cow, and seemed to be straying
and grazing about the shore ; and she also made her sons
look like calves of smaller size. This portent amazed the
king, and he ordered that they should be surrounded and
tut off from returning to the waters. Then he left the
carriage, which he used because of the feebleness of his aged
body, and sat on the ground marvelling. But the mother,
who had taken the shape of the larger beast, charged at the
king with outstretched tusk, and pierced one of his sides.
The wound killed him ; and his end was unworthy of such
majesty as his. His soldiers, thirsting to avenge his death,
threw their spears and transfixed the monsters, and saw, when
[171] they were killed, that they were the corpses of human beings
with the heads of wild beasts: a circumstance which exposed
the trick more than anything.

So ended Frode, the most famous kino- in the whole world.

The nobles, when he had been disembowelled, had his body

book five, 211

kept embalmed for three years, for they feared the provinces
would rise if the kings end were published. And they
wished his death to be concealed above all from foreigners,
so that by the pretence he was alive they might preserve
the boundaries of that empire, which had been extended for
so long ; and that, on the strength of the ancient authority
of their general, they might extract the usual tribute from
their subjects. So the lifeless corpse was carried away by
them in such a way that it seemed to be taken, not in a
funeral bier, but in a royal carriage, as if it were a due and
proper tribute from the soldiers to an infirm old man not
in full possession of his forces. Such splendour did his
friends bestow on him even in death. But when his limbs
rotted, and were seized with extreme decay, and when the
corruption could not be arrested, they buried his body with a
royal funeral in a barrow near Waere, a bridge of Zealand ;
declaring that Frode had desired to die and be buried in
what was thought the chief province of his kingdom.

END OF BOOK FIVE.

1' 2

BOOK SIX.

[172] After the death of Frode, the Danes wrongly supposed that
Fridleif, who was being reared in Russia, had perished ; and,
thinking that the sovereignty halted for lack of an heir, and
that it could no longer be kept on in the hands of the royal
line, they considered that the sceptre would be best deserved
by the man who should affix to the yet fresh grave of Frode
a song of praise in his glorification, and commit the renown
of the dead king to after ages by a splendid memorial. Then
one Hiarx, very skilled in writing Danish poetry, wishing to
give the fame of the hero some notable record of words, and
tempted by the enormous prize, composed, after his own
fashion, a barbarous stave. Its purport, expressed in four
lines, I have transcribed as follows :

" Frode, whom the Danes would have wished to live long,
they bore long through their lands when he was dead. The
great chief's body, with this turf heaped above it, bare earth
covers under the lucid sky."

When the composer of this song had uttered it, the Danes
rewarded him with the crown. Thus they gave a kingdom
for an epitaph, and the weight of a whole empire was
presented to a little string of letters. Slender expense for so
vast a guerdon ! This huge payment for a little poem
exceeded the glory of Caesar's recompense1 ; for it was enough
for the divine Julius to pension with a township the writer
and glorifier of those conquests which he had achieved
over the whole world. But now the spendthrift kindness of
the populace squandered a kingdom on a churl. Nay, not

1 Ctesar's .recompense] Saxo appears to be thinking of the reward
which Pompey is said to have given to Theophanes of Mytilene. (Cicero
Pro A rchia, 9.)

BOOK SIX. 213

even Africanus,1 when he rewarded the records of his deeds,
rose to the munificence of the Danes. For there the wage of [173]
that laborious volume was in mere gold, while here a few
callow verses won a sceptre for a peasant.

At the same time Erik, who held the governorship of
Sweden, died of disease ; and his son Halfdan, who governed
in his father's stead, alarmed by the many attacks of twelve
brothers of Norwegian birth, and powerless to punish their
violence, fled, hoping for reinforcements, to ask aid of Fridleif,
then sojourning in Russia. Approaching him with a sup-
pliant face, he lamented that he was himself shattered and
bruised by a foreign foe, and brought a dismal plaint of
his wrongs. From him Fridleif heard the tidings of his father's
death, and granting the aid he sought, went to Norway
in armed array. At this time the aforesaid brothers, their
allies forsaking them, built a very high rampart within an
island surrounded by a swift stream, also extending their
earthworks along the level. Trusting to this refuge, they
harried the neighbourhood with continual raids. For they
built a bridge on which they used to get to the mainland
when they left the island. This bridge was fastened to the
gate of the stronghold ; and they worked it hj the guidance
of ropes, in such a way that it turned as if on some revolving
hinge, and at one time let them pass across the river ; while
at another, drawn back from above by unseen cords, it helped
to defend the entrance. Now these warriors were of valiant
temper, young and stalwart, of splendid bodily presence,
renowned for victories over giants, full of trophies of con-
quered nations, and wealthy with spoil. I record the names
of some them — for the rest have perished in antiquity —
Gerbiorn, Gunbiorn, Arinbiorn, Stenbiorn, Esbiorn, Thor-
biorn, and Biorn. Biorn is said to have had a horse which
was splendid and of exceeding speed, so that when all the rest
were powerless to cross the river it alone stemmed the roar-

1 Africanus] The reference is again obscure. M quotes, from Pro
Archia, 9, a belief that Ennius was honoured with a statue in the tomb
of the Scipios. Livy (xxxviii, 56) refers to three statues on the monu-
ment of the Scipios, one of which was said to be of Ennius.

214 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

ing eddy without weariness. This rapid conies down in so
swift and sheer a volume that animals often lose all power of
swimming in it, and perish. For, trickling from the topmost
crests of the hills, it comes down the steep sides, catches on
the rocks, and is shattered, falling into the deep valleys with
a manifold clamour of waters ; but, being straightway rebuffed
by the rocks that bar the way, it keeps the speed of its
current ever at the same even pace. And so, along the
[174] whole length of the channel, the waves are one turbid mass,
and the white foam brims over everywhere. But, after
rolling out of the narrows between the rocks, it spreads
abroad in a slacker and stiller flood, and turns into an
island a rock that lies in its course. On either side of the
rock juts out a sheer ridge, thick with divers trees, which
screen the river from distant view. Biorn had also a dog of
extraordinary fierceness, a terribly vicious brute, dangerous
for people to live with, which had often singly destroyed
twelve men. But, since the tale is hearsay rather than cer-
tainty, let good judges weigh its credit. This dog, as I have
heard, was the favourite of the giant Offot [Un-foot], and used
to watch his herd amid the pastures.

Now the warriors, who were always pillaging the neigh-
bourhood, used often to commit great slaughters. Plundering
houses, cutting down cattle, sacking everything, making great
hauls of booty, rifling houses, then burning them, massacring
male and female promiscuously — these, and not honest deal-
ings, were their occupations. Fridleif surprised them while
on a reckless raid, and drove them all back for refuge to
the stronghold ; he also seized the immensely powerful horse,
whose rider, in the haste of his panic, had left it on the
hither side of the river in order to fly betimes ; for he
durst not take it with him over the bridge. Then Fridleif
proclaimed that he would pay the weight of the dead body
in gold to any man who slew one of those brothers. The
hope of the prize stimulated some of the champions of the
king; and yet they were fired not so much with covetous-
n^ss as with valour; so, going secretly to Fridleif, they

BOOK SIX. 215

promised to attempt the task, vowing to sacrifice their lives
if they did not bring home the severed heads of the robbers.
Fridleif praised their valour and their vows, but bidding the
onlookers wait, went in the night to the river, satisfied with
a single companion. For, not to seem better provided with
other men's valour than with his own, he determined to fore-
stall their aid by his own courage. Thereupon he crushed
and killed his companion with a shower of flints, and flung
his bloodless corpse into the waves, having dressed it in his
own clothes ; which he stripped off', borrowing the cast-off
garb of the other, so that when the corpse was seen it might
look as if the king had perished. He further deliberately
drew blood from the beast on which he had ridden, and be-
spattered it, so that when it came back into camp he might
make them think he himself was dead. Then he set spur
to his horse and drove it into the midst of the eddies, crossed
the river and alighted, and tried to climb over the rampart
that screened the stronghold by steps set up against the
mound. When he got over the top and could grasp the
battlements with his hand, he quietly put his foot inside,
and, without the knowledge of the watch, went lightly on
tiptoe to the house into which the bandits had gone to carouse.
And when he had reached its hall, he sat down under the
porch overhanging the door. Now the strength of their fast- I J75J
ness made the warriors feel so safe that they were tempted
to a debauch ; for they thought that the swiftly rushing river
made their garrison inaccessible, since it seemed impossible
either to swim over or to cross in boats. For no part of the
river allowed of fording. Then Biorn, filled with the mirth
of the revel, said that in his sleep he had seen a beast come
out of the waters, which spouted ghastly fire from its
mouth, enveloping everything in a sheet of flame. Therefore
the holes and corners of the island should, he said, be searched ;
nor ought they to trust so much to their position, as rashly
to let overweening confidence bring them to utter ruin. No
situation was so strong that the mere protection of nature
was enough for it without human effort. Moreover they

216 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

must take great care that the warning of his slumbers was
not followed by a yet more gloomy and disastrous fulfilment.
So they all sallied forth from the stronghold, and narrowly
scanned the whole circuit of the island ; and finding the horse,
they surmised that Fridleif had been drowned in the waters
of the river. They received the horse within the gates with
rejoicing, supposing that it had flung off its rider and swum
over. But Biorn, still scared with the memory of the visions
of the night, advised them to keep watch, since it was not
safe for them yet to put aside suspicion of danger. Then he
went to his room to rest, with the memory of his vision
deeply stored in his heart. Meanwhile the horse, which
Fridleif, in order to spread a belief in his death, had
besprinkled with blood (though only with that which lies
between flesh and skin), burst all bedabbled into the camp of
his soldiers. They went straight to the river, and finding the
carcase of the slave, took it for the body of the king ; the
hissing eddies having cast it on the bank, dressed in brave
attire. Nothing helped their mistake so much as the swelling
of the battered body ; inasmuch as the skin was torn and
bruised with the flints, so that all the features were blotted
out, bloodless and wan. This exasperated the champions who
had just promised Fridleif to see that the robbers were extir-
pated : and they approached the perilous torrent, that the}'
might not seem to tarnish the honour of their promise by a
craven neglect of their vow. The rest imitated their bold-
ness, and with equal ardour went to the river, ready to avenge
their king or to endure the worst. When Fridleif saw them
he hastened to lower the bridge to the mainland ; and when
he had got the champions he cut down the watch at the first
[176] attack. Thus he went on to attack the rest and put them to
the sword, all save Biorn ; whom he tended very carefully and
cured of his wounds ; whereupon, under pledge of solemn oath,
he made him his colleague, thinking it better to use his services
than to boast of his death. He also declared it would be shame-
iul it such a flower of bravery were plucked in his first youth
and perished by an untimely death.

BOOK SIX. 217

Now the Danes had long ago had false tidings of Fridleif's
death, and when they found that he was approaching, they sent
men to fetch him, and ordered Hiarn to quit the sovereignty,
because he was thought to be holding it only on sufferance and
carelessly. But he could not bring himself to resign such an
honour, and chose sooner to spend his life for glory than pass
into the dim lot of common men. Therefore he resolved to
fight for his present estate, that he might not have to resume
his former one stripped of his royal honours. Thus the land
was estranged and vexed with the hasty commotion of civil
strife ; some were of Hiarn's party, while others agreed to the
claims of Fridleif, because of the vast services of Frode ; and
the voice of the commons was perplexed and divided, some of
them respecting things as they were, others the memory of the
past. But regard for the memory of Frode weighed most, and
its sweetness gave Fridleif the balance of popularity. For
many men of deeper understanding thought that a man of
peasant rank should be removed from the sovereignty ; since,1
contrary to the rights of birth, and only by the favour of
fortune, he had reached an unhoped-for eminence ; and in
order that the unlawful occupant might not debar the rightful
heir to the office. Fridleif told the envoys of the Danes to
return, and request Hiarn either to resign the kingdom or to
meet him in battle. Hiarn thought it more grievous than
death to set lust of life before honour, and to seek safety at
the cost of glory. So he met Fridleif in the field, was
crushed, and fled into Jutland, where, rallying a band, he
again attacked his conqueror. But his men were all con-
sumed with the sword, and he fled unattended, as the island
testifies which has taken its name from his [Hiarno]. And
so, feeling his lowly fortune, and seeing himself almost stripped
of his forces by the double defeat, he turned his mind to craft,
and went to Fridleif with his face disguised, meaning to be-
come intimate, and find an occasion to slay him treacherously.
He was received by the king, and awhile hid his purpose
under the pretence of servitude. For, giving himself out as a

1 Since] Ed.pr. and Holder have quanquam; Madvig emended quouiam.

218 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

-alt-distiller, he performed base offices among the servants
who did the filthiest work. He used also to take the last
['//] place at meal-time, and he refrained from the baths, lest his
multitude of scars should betray him if he stripped. The
king, in order to ease his own suspicions, made him wash ;
and when he knew his enemy by the scars, he said : " Tell
me now, thou shameless bandit, how wouldst thou have dealt
with me, if thou hadst found out plainly that I wished to
murder thee ?" Hiarn, stupified, said: "Had I caught thee I
would have first challenged thee, and then fought thee, to give
thee a better chance of wiping out thy reproach." Fridleif
presently took him at his word, challenged him and slew him,
and buried his body in a barrow that bears the dead man's name.
Soon after Fridleif was admonished by his people to think
about marrying, that he might prolong his line ; but he main-
tained that the unmarried life was best, quoting his father
Frode, on whom his wife's wantonness had brought great
dishonour. At last, yielding to the persistent entreaties of all,
he proceeded to send ambassadors to ask for the daughter of
Amund, King of Norway. One of these, named Frok, was
swallowed by the waves in mid- voyage, and shewed a strange
portent at his death. For when the closing flood of billows
encompassed him, blood arose in the midst of the eddy,
and the whole face of the sea was steeped with an alien red-
ness, so that the ocean, which a moment before was foaming
and white with tempest, was presently swollen with crimson
waves, and was seen to wear a colour foreign to its nature.
But Amund implacably declined to consent to the wishes of
the king, and treated the legates shamefully, declaring that he
spurned the embassy because the tyranny of Frode had of
old borne so heavily upon Norway. But Amund's daughter,
Frogertha, not only looking to the birth of Fridleif, but also
honouring the glory of his deeds, began to upbraid her father,
because he scorned a son-in-law whose nobility was perfect,
bejng both sufficient in valour and flawless in birth. She
added that the portentous aspect of the sea, when the waves
irere suddenly turned info blood, simply and solely signified

BOOK SIX. 219

the defeat of Norway, and was a plain presage of the victory
of Denmark. And when Fridleif sent a further embassy to
ask for her, wishing to vanquish the refusal by persistency,
Amund was indignant that a petition he had once denied
should be obstinately pressed, and hurried the envoys to
death, wishing to offer a brutal check to the zeal of this brazen
wooer. Fridleif heard news of this outrage, and summonino-
Halfdan and Biorn, sailed round Norway. Amund, equipped [178]
with his native defences, put out his fleet against him. The
firth into which both fleets had mustered is called Frokasund.
Here Fridleif left the camp at night to reconnoitre ; and,
hearing an unusual kind of sound close to him as of brass
being beaten, he stood still and looked up, and heard the
following song of three swans, who were crying above him :
' While Hythin sweeps over the sea and cleaves the ravening
tide, his serf drinks out of gold and licks the cups of milk.
Best is the estate of the slave on whom waits the heir, the
king's son, for their lots are rashly interchanged." Next,
after the birds had sung, a belt fell from on high, which
showed writing to interpret the song. For while the son of
Hythin, the King of Tellemark,1 was at his boyish play, a giant,
assuming the usual appearance of men, had- carried him off,
and using him as an oarsman (having taken his skiff over to
the neighbouring shore), was then sailing past Fridleif while
he was occupied reconnoitring. But the king would not
suffer him to use the service of the captive youth, and longed
to rob the spoiler of his prey. The youth warned him that
he must first use sharp reviling against the giant, promising

1 Son of Hythin, the King of Tellemark] The words Hythin nomine
are in ed. pr. applied to the giant. M. transfers them to the king, in
order to make them consistent with the sequel, p. 223, where Fridleif is
said to win for Halfdan ' k Hy thin's daughter, whom he had once freed
from a monster". There, Hythin is a king and not a giant. But the present
passage is helped little by this transposition. The swan-song clearly
says, not that Hythin's son, but that Hythin, "sweeps the sea", while
the base slave, namely the giant, sits by drinking. The suggestion of St.
to read jiliam for fUium, on the strength of the passage on p. 223, does
not help this difficulty, and some confusion still remains.

220 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

that lie would prove easy to attack, it' only he were assailed
with biting verse. Then Fridleif began thus :

" Since thou art a giant of three bodies, invincible, and
almost readiest heaven with thy crest, why does this silly
sword bind thy thigh ? Why doth a broken spear gird thy
huge side ? Why perchance dost thou defend thy stalwart
breast with a feeble sword, and forget the likeness of thy
bodily stature, trusting in a short dagger, a petty weapon ?
Soon, soon will I balk thy bold onset, when with blunted blade
thou attemptest war. Since thou art thyself a timid beast,
a lump lacking proper pith, thou art swept headlong like
a flying shadow, having with a fair and famous body got a
79] heart that is un warlike and unstable with fear, and a spirit
quite unmatched to thy limbs. Hence thy frame totters,
for thy goodly presence is faulty through the overthrow of thy
soul, and thy nature in all her parts is at strife. Hence shall
all tribute of praise quit thee, nor shalt thou be accounted
famous among the brave, but shalt be reckoned among ranks
obscure."

When he had said this he lopped oft' a hand and foot of the
giant, made him fly, and set his prisoner free. Then he
went straightway to the giant's headland, took the treasure
out of his cave, and carried it away. Rejoicing in these
trophies, and employing the kidnapped youth to row him over
the sea, he composed with cheery voice the following strain :

" In the slaying of the swift monster we wielded our blood-
stained swords and our crimsoned blade, whilst thou, Amund,
lord of the Norwegian ruin, wert in deep slumber; and since
blind night covers thee, without any light of soul, thy valour
has melted away and beguiled thee. But we crushed a giant
who lost use of his limbs and wealth, and we pierced into
the disorder of his dreary den. There we seized and plundered
his piles of gold. And now with oars we sweep the wave-
wandering main, and joyously return, rowing back to the
shore our booty-laden ship ; we fleet over the waves in a skiff
tiiut travels the sea ; gaily let us furrow those open waters, lest
the dawn come and betray us to the foe. Lightly therefore, and

BOOK SIX. 221

pulling our hardest, let us scour the sea, making for our camp
and fleet ere Titan raise his rosy head out of the clear waters ;
that when fame noises the deed about, and Frogertha knows
that the spoil has been won with a gallant struggle, her heart
may be stirred to be more gentle to our prayer."

On the morrow there was a great muster of the forces, and
Fridleif had a bloody battle with Amund, fought partly by sea
and partly by land. For not only were the lines drawn up
in the open country, but the warriors also made an attack with
their fleet. The battle which followed cost much blood. So
Biorn, when his ranks gave back, unloosed his hound and sent [180]
it against the enemy ; wishing to win with the biting of a dog
the victory which he could not achieve with the sword. The
enemy were by this means shamefully routed, for a square
of the warriors ran away when attacked with its teeth.

There is no saying whether their flight was more dismal or
more disgraceful. Indeed, the army of the Northmen was a
thing to blush for ; for an enemy crushed it by borrowing the
aid of a brute. Nor was it treacherous of Fridleif to recruit
the failing valour of his men with the aid of a dog. In
this war Amund fell ; and his servant Ane, surnamed the
Archer, challenged Fridleif to fight him ; but Biorn, being a
man of meaner estate, not suffering the king to engage with a
common fellow, attacked him himself. And when Biorn had
bent his bow and was fitting the arrow to the string, suddenly
a dart sent by Ane pierced the top of the cord. Soon another
arrow came after it and struck amid the joints of his fingers.
A third followed, and fell on the arrow as it was laid to the
string-. For Ane, who was most dexterous at shooting' arrows
from a distance, had purposely only struck the weapon of his
opponent, in order that, by showing it was in his power to do
likewise to his person, he might recall the champion from his
purpose. But Biorn abated none of his valour for this, and,
scorning bodily danger, entered the fray with heart and face
so steadfast, that he seemed neither to yield anything to the
skill of Ane, nor lay aside aught of his wonted courage. Thus
he would in nowise be made to swerve from his purpose, and

222 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

dauntlessly ventured on the battle. Botli of them left it
wounded ; and fought another also on Agdar Ness with an
emulous thirst for glory.

By the death of Amund, Fridleif was freed from a most
bitter foe, and obtained a deep and tranquil peace ; whereupon
he forced his savage temper to the service of delight ; and,
transferring his ardour to love, equipped a fleet in order to
seek the marriage which had once been denied him. At last
he set forth on his voyage ; and his fleet being becalmed, he
invaded some villages to look for food ; where, being received
hospitably by a certain Grubb, and at last winning his
daughter in marriage, he begat a son named Olaf. After some
time had passed he also won Frogertha ; but, while going back
to his own country, he had a bad voyage, and was driven on
the shores of an unknown island. A certain man appeared to
him in a vision, and instructed him to dig up a treasure that
was buried in the ground, and also to attack the dragon that
guarded it, covering himself in an ox-hide to escape the poison ;
[181] teaching him also to meet the envenomed fangs with a hide
stretched over his shield. Therefore, to test the vision, he
attacked the snake as it rose out of the waves, and for a
long time cast spears against its scaly side ; in vain, for its
hard and shelly body foiled the darts flung at it. But the
snake, shaking its mass of coils, uprooted the trees which it
brushed past by winding its tail about them. Moreover, by
constantly dragging its body, it hollowed the ground down
to the solid rock, and had made a sheer bank on either hand,
just as in some places we see hills parted by an intervening
valley. So Fridleif, seeing that the upper part of the creature
was proof against attack, assailed the lower side with his
sword, and piercing the groin, drew blood from the quivering
beast. When it was dead, he unearthed the monejr from the
underground chamber and had it taken off' in his ships.

When the year had come to an end, he took great pains to
reconcile Biorn and Ane, who had often challenged and fought
Mae another, and made them exchange their hatred for friend-
ship; and even entrusted to them his three-year-old son Olaf,
to rear. But his mistress, Juritha, the mother of Olaf, he gave

book srx. 228

in marriage to Ane, whom he made one of his warriors ; think-
ing that she would endure more calmly to be put away, if she
wedded such a champion, and received his robust embrace
instead of a king's.

The ancients were wont to consult the oracles of the Fates
concerning the destinies of their children. In this way
Fridleif desired to search into the fate of his son Olaf ; and,
after solemnly offering up his vows, he went to the house of
the gods in entreaty ; where, looking into the chapel, he saw
three maidens,1 sitting on three seats. The first of them was
of a benignant temper, and bestowed upon the boy abundant
beauty and ample store of favour in the eyes of men. The
second granted him the gift of surpassing generosity. But
the third, a woman of more mischievous temper and malignant
disposition, scorning the unanimous kindness of her sisters,
and likewise wishing to mar their gifts, marked the future
character of the boy with the slur of niggardliness. Thus the
benefits of the others were spoilt by the poison of a lamentable
doom ; and hence, by virtue of the twofold nature of these gifts,
Olaf got his surname from the meanness which was mingled
with his bounty. So it came about that this blemish which
found its way into the gift marred the whole sweetness of its
first benignity.

When Fridleif had returned from Norway, and was travel-
ling through Sweden, he took on himself to act as ambassador,
and sued successfully for Hythin's daughter, whom he had
once rescued from a monster, to be the wife of Halfdan, he
being still unwedded. Meantime his wife Frogertha bore a [182]
son Frode, who afterwards got his surname from his noble
munificence. And thus Frode, because of the memory of his
grandsire's prosperity, which he recalled by his name, became
from his very cradle and earliest childhood such a darling of
all men, that he was not suffered even to step or stand on the
ground, but was continually cherished in people's laps and
kissed. Thus he was not assigned to one upbringer only, but
was in a manner everybody's fosterling. And, after his

1 Three maidens] Norns. See Mogk, op. cit., p. 1025. cf. Helgi Lay (I)
in a P. B.,L 131.

224 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

father's death, while he was in his twelfth year, Swerting
and Hanef, the kings of Saxony, disowned his sway, and tried
to rebel openly. He overcame them in ^battle, and imposed
on the conquered peoples a poll-tax of a coin, which they
were to pay as his slaves. For he showed himself so
o-enerous that he doubled the ancient pay of the soldiers : a
fashion of bounty which then was novel. For he did not, as
despots do, expose himself to the vulgar allurements of vice,
but strove to covet ardently whatsoever he saw was nearest
honour ; to make his wealth public property ; to surpass all
other men in bounty, to forestall them all in offices of kind-
ness ; and, hardest of all, to conquer envy by virtue. By this
means the youth soon won such favour with all men, that he
not only equalled in renown the honours of his forefathers,
but surpassed the most ancient records of kings.

At the same time one Starkad, the son of Storwerk, escaped

alone, either by force or fortune, from a wreck in which his

friends perished, and was received by Frode as his guest for

his incredible excellence both of mind and body. And, after

beino- for some little time his comrade, he was dressed in a

better and more comely fashion every day, and was at last given

a noble vessel, and bidden to ply the calling of a rover, with the

charge of guarding the sea. For nature had gifted him with

a body of superhuman excellence ; and his greatness of spirit

equalled it, so that folk thought him behind no man in

valour. So far did his glory spread, that the renown of his

name and deeds continues famous even yet. He shone out

among our own countrymen by his glorious roll of exploits,

and ho had also won a most splendid record among all the

provinces of the Swedes and Saxons. Tradition says that he

was born originally in the country1 which borders Sweden on

the east, where barbarous hordes of Esthonians and other

nations now dwell far and wide. But a fabulous yet common

! [83] rumour lias invented tales about his birth which are contrary

to reason and flatly incredible. For some relate that he was

1 The country] Probably the mythical giant-land.

nook six. 225

sprung from giants, and betrayed his monstrous birth by an
extraordinary number of hands, four of which, engendered by
the superfluity of his nature, they declare that the god Thor
tore off, shattering the framework of the sinews, and wrench-
ing from his whole body the monstrous bunches of fingers ;
so that he had but two left, and that his body, which had
before swollen to the size of a giant's, and, by reason of its
shapeless crowd of limbs looked gigantic, was thenceforth
chastened to a better appearance, and kept within the bounds
of human shortness.

For there were of old certain men versed in sorcery, Thor,
namely, and Odin, and many others, who were cunning in
contriving marvellous sleights ; and they, winning the minds
of the simple, began to claim the rank of gods. For, in
particular, they ensnared Norway, Sweden, and Denmark in
the vainest credulity, and by prompting these lands to
worship them, infected them with their imposture. The
effects of their deceit spread so far, that all other men adored
a sort of divine power in them, and. thinking them either
gods or in league with gods, offered up solemn prayers to
these inventors of sorceries, and gave to blasphemous error the
honour due to religion. Hence it has come about that the
holy days, in their regular course, are called among us by the
names of these men ; for the ancient Latins are known to have
named these days severally, either after the titles of their own
gods, or after the planets, seven in number. But it can bel
plainly inferred from the mere names of the holy days that
the objects worshipped by our countrymen were not the same
as those whom the most ancient of the Romans called Jove
and Mercury nor those to whom Greece and Latium paid
idolatrous homage. For the days, called among our country-
men Thors-day or Odins-day, the ancients termed severally the
holy day of Jove or of Mercury. If, therefore, according to the
distinction implied in the interpretation I have quoted, we
take it that Thor is Jove and Odin Mercury, it follows that
Jove was the son of Mercury ; that is, if the assertion of our
countrymen holds, among whom it is told as a matter of
common belief, that Thor was Odin's son. Therefore, when

226 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the Latins, believing to the contrary effect, declare that Mercury
was sprung from Jove, then, if their declaration is to stand,
we are driven to consider that Thor was not the same as Jove,
and that Odin was also different from Mercury. Some say that
[184] the gods, whom our countrymen worshipped, shared only the
title1 with those honoured by Greece or Latium, but that, being
in a manner nearly equal to them in dignity, they borrowed
from them the worship as well as the name. This must be a
sufficient discourse upon the deities of Danish antiquity. I
have expounded this briefly for the general profit,2 that my
readers may know clearly to what worship in its heathen
superstition our country has bowed the knee. Now I will go
back to my subject where I left it.

Ancient tradition says that Starkad, whom I mentioned
above, offered the first-fruits of his deeds to the favour of
the gods by slaying Wikar, the king of the' Norwegians. The
affair, according to the version of some people, happened as
follows : —

Odin once wished to slay Wikar by a grievous death ; but,
loth to do the deed openly, he graced Starkad, who was already
remarkable for his extraordinary size, not only with bravery,
but also with skill in the composing of spells, that he might
the more readily use his services to accomplish the destruction
of the king. For that was how he hoped that Starkad would
show himself grateful for the honour he paid him. For the
same reason he also endowed him with three spans of mortal
life, that he might be able to commit in them as many abomin-
able deeds. So Odin resolved that Starkad's days should be
prolonged by the following crime. Starkad presently went to
Wikar and dwelt awhile in his company, hiding treachery
under homage. At last he went with him sea-roving. And
in a certain place they were troubled with prolonged and

1 Shared only the title] namely, of gods : i.e., the classical and Scan-
dinavian gods were not the same, but the latter, by their resemblance
fco the former, got, first, the title of gods, and then the honour of having
the days of the week named after them.

- Foe the general profit] Here begins Lassen's fragment which we
call B, and about which see Introduction. It lasts to p. 231, 1. 16.

book six. 227

bitter storms ; and when the winds checked their voyage so
much that they had to lie still most of the year, they thought
that the gods must be appeased with human blood. When
the lots were cast into the urn it so fell that the king was
required for death as a victim. Then Starkad made a noose of
withies and bound the king in it; saying that for a brief instant
he should pay the mere semblance of a penalty. But the
tightness of the knot acted according to its nature, and cut off'
his last breath as he hung. And while he was still quivering
Starkad rent away with his steel the remnant of his life ;
thus disclosing his treachery when he ought to have brought
aid. I do not think that I need examine the version which
relates that the pliant withies, hardened with the sudden grip,
acted like a noose of iron. Then he took Wikar's ship and
went to one Bemon, the most courageous of all the rovers of
Denmark, in order to take up the life of a pirate. For Bemon's
partner, named Frakk, weary of the toil of sea-roving, had [185]
lately withdrawn from partnership with him, after first making
a money-bargain. Now Starkad and Bemon were so careful to
keep temperate, that they are said never to have indulged in
intoxicating drink, for fear that continence, the greatest bond
of bravery, might be expelled by the power of wantonness.
So when, after overthrowing provinces far and wide, they in-
vaded Russia also in their lust for empire, the natives, trust-
ing little in their walls or arms, began to bar the advance of
the enemy with nails of uncommon sharpness, that they might
check their inroad, though they could not curb their onset in
battle ; and that the ground might secretly wound the soles of
the men whom their army shrank from confronting in the field.
But not even such a barrier could serve to keep oft' the foe.
The Danes were cunning enough to foil the pains of the
Russians. For they straightway shod themselves with wooden
clogs, and trod with unhurt steps upon the points that lay
beneath their soles. Now this iron thing is divided into four
spikes, which are so arranged that on whatsoever side chance
may cast it, it stands steadily on three equal feet. Then they
struck into the pathless glades, where the woods were thickest,
and expelled Flokk, the chief of the Russians,from the mountain

Q 2

228 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

hiding-places into which he had crept. And here they got so
much booty, that there was not one of them but went back to
the fleet laden with gold and silver.

Now when Bemon was dead, Starkad was summoned because
of his valour by the champions of Permland. And when he
had done many noteworthy deeds among them, he went into
the land of the Swedes, where he lived at leisure for seven
years' space with the sons of Frey. At last he left them and
betook himself to Hakon,1 the tyrant of Denmark, because
when stationed at Upsala, at the time of the sacrifices, he was
disgusted by the effeminate gestures and the clapping of the
mimes on the stage, and by the unmanly clatter of the bells.
Hence it is clear how far he kept his soul from lasciviousness,
not even enduring to look upon it. Thus does virtue with-
stand wantonness. Therefore he took his fleet into Ireland
with Hakon, in order that even the furthest kingdoms of the
world might not be untouched by the Danish arms. The
king of the island at this time was Hugleik, who, though he
had a well -filled treasury, was yet so prone to avarice, that
once, when he gave a pair of shoes which had been adorned
by the hand of a careful craftsman, he took off the ties, and
[186] by thus removing the latchets turned his present into a slight.
This unhandsome act blemished his gift so much that he
seemed to reap hatred for it instead of thanks. Thus he used
never to be generous to any respectable man, but to spend all
his bounty upon mimes and jugglers. For so base a fellow
was bound to keep friendly company with the base, and such
a slough of vices to wheedle his partners in sin with pander-
ing endearments. Still he had Geigad2 and Swipdag, nobles
of tried valour, who, by the singular lustre of their warlike
deeds, shone out among their unmanly companions like jewels
embedded in ordure ; these alone were found to defend the
riches of the king. When a battle began between Hugleik

1 Hakon is properly Hake. Cf. Ynglinga Saga, c. 25.
5 Geigad] Gegathus. The ed. pr. has Begathus, Beigad, a wrong form, g
being confused, as often, with b, See Ynglinga Saga, c. 25, and Starkad's

BOOK SIX. 229

and Hakon, the hordes of mimes, whose light-mindedness un-
steadied their bodies, broke their ranks and scurried off in
panic ; and this shameful flight was their sole requital for all
their king's benefits. Then Geigad and Swipdag faced all
those thousands of the enemy single-handed, and fought with
such incredible courage, that they seemed to do the part not
merely of two warriors, but of a whole army. Geigad, more-
over, dealt Hakon, who pressed him hard, such a wound in
the breast that he exposed the upper part of his liver. It
was here that Starkad, while he was attacking Geigad with
his sword, received a very sore wound on the head ; where-
fore he afterwards related in a certain sono; that a ghastlier
wound had never befallen him at any time ; for, though the
divisions of his gashed head were bound up by the surround-
ing outer skin, yet the livid unseen wound concealed a foul
gangrene below. Starkad conquered, killing Hugleik and
also routing the Irish ; and he had any of the actors beaten
whom chance made prisoner ; thinking it better to order a
pack of buffoons to be ludicrously punished by the loss of their
skins than to command a more deadly punishment and take
their lives. Thus he visited with a disgraceful chastisement
the base-born throng of professional jugglers, and was content
to punish them with the disgusting flouts of the lash. Then
the Danes ordered that the wealth of the king should be
brought out of the treasury in the city of Dublin and publicly
pillaged. For so vast a treasure had been found that none
took much pains to divide it strictly.

After this, Starkad was commissioned, together with Win,1
the chief of the Sclavs, to check the revolt of the East. They,
having fought against the armies of the Kurlanders, the [187]
Sembs, the Sangals, and, finally, all the Easterlings, won
splendid victories everywhere. A champion of great repute,
named Wisin, settled and dwelt upon a rock in Russia named
Ana-fial, and harried both neighbouring and distant provinces
with all kinds of outrage. This man used to blunt the edge
of every weapon by merely looking at it. He was made so bold

1 Win is the Rinodnce Flebace nato of Starkad's song.

230 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

in consequence, by having lost all fear of wounds, that he used
to carry oft' the wives of distinguished men and drag them to
outrage before the eyes of their husbands. Starkad was
roused by the tale of this villainy, and went to Russia to
destroy the criminal ; thinking nothing too hard to overcome,
he challenged Wisin, attacked him made even his tricks use-
less to him. and slew him. For Starkad covered his blade
with a very fine skin, that it might not meet the eye of the
sorcerer ; and neither the power of his sleights nor his great
strength were any help to Wisin, but he had to yield to
Starkad. Then Starkad, trusting in his bodily strength,
fought with and overcame a giant at Byzantium, reputed
invincible, named Tanne, and drove him to fly an outlaw
to unknown quarters of the earth. Therefore, finding that he
was too mighty for any hard fate to overcome him, he went
to the country of Poland, and conquered in a duel a cham-
pion whom our countrymen name Wasce ; but the Teutons,
arranging the letters differently, call him Wilzce.

Meanwhile the Saxons began to attempt a revolt, and to
consider particularly how they could destroy Frode, who was
unconquered in war, by some other way than an open conflict.
Thinking that it would be best done by a duel, they sent men
to provoke the king with a challenge, knowing that he was
always ready to court any hazard, and that his high spirit
would not yield to any admonition whatever. They fancied
that this was the best time to attack him, because they knew
that Starkad, whose valour most men dreaded, was away on
business. But while Frode hesitated, and said that he would
talk with his friends about the answer to be given, Starkad,
who had just returned from his sea-roving, appeared, and
I 'lamed such a challenge, principally (he said) because it was
fitting for k ings to fight only with their equals, and because they
should not take up arms against men of the people ; but it was
more fitting for himself, who was born in a lowlier station, to
[188] manage the battle. So the Saxons approached Hame, who was
accounted their most famous champion, with many offers, and
promised him that, if he would lend his services for the duel,

BOOK SIX. 231

they would pay him his own weight in gold.1 The fighter was
tempted by the money, and, with all the ovation of a military
procession, they attended him to the ground appointed for the
combat. Thereupon the Danes, decked in warlike array, led
Starkad, who was to represent his king, out to the duelling-
ground. Hame, in his youthful assurance, despised him as
withered with age, and chose to grapple rather than fight
with an outworn old man. Attacking Starkad, he would
have flung him tottering to the earth, but that fortune, who
would not suffer the old man to be conquered, prevented him
from being hurt. For he is said to have been so crushed by
the fist of Hame, as he dashed on him, that he touched the
earth with his chin, supporting himself on his knees. But
he made up nobly for his tottering ; for, as soon as he could
raise his knee and free his hand to draw his sword, he clove
Hame through the middle of the body. Many lands and sixty
bondmen apiece were the reward of the victory. But, after
Hame was killed, the sway of the Danes over the Saxons
grew so insolent, that they were forced to pay every year
a small tax for each of their limbs that was a cubit [ell]
long, in token of their slavery. This Hanef could not bear,
and he meditated war in his desire to remove the tribute.
Steadfast love of his country filled his heart every day
with greater compassion for the oppressed ; and, longing to
spend his life for the freedom of his countrymen, he openly
showed a disposition to rebel. Frode took his forces over
the Elbe, and killed him near the village of Hanofra [Hanover],
so named after Hanef. But Swerting, though he was equally
moved by the distress of his countrymen, said nothing about
the ills of his land, and revolved a plan for freedom with
a spirit yet more dogged than Hanef 's. Men often doubt
whether this zeal was liker to vice or to virtue ; but I cer-
tainly censure it as criminal, because it was produced by a
treacherous desire to revolt. It may have seemed most expe-

1 Pay him his own weight in gold] molem corporis eius se auro repen-
suros. So ed. pr., which we follow. B. has sepulturos (with repensnros
in margin from another hand) for se repensuros. Holder in his final cor-
rections adopos auro sepulturos.

232 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

dient to seek the freedom of the country, but it was not lawful
[189] to strive after this freedom by craft and treachery. Therefore,
since the deed of Swerting was far from honourable, neither
will it be called expedient; for it is nobler to attack openly
him whom you mean to attack, and to exhibit hatred in the
light of day, than to disguise a real wish to do harm under a
spurious si low of friendship. But the gains of crime are in-
glorious, its fruits are brief and fading. For even as that soul
is slippery, which hides its insolent treachery by stealthy
arts, so is it right that whatsoever is akin to guilt should
be frail and fleeting. For guilt has been usually found to
come home to its author ; and rumour relates that such was
the fate of Swerting. For he had resolved to surprise the king-
under the pretence of a banquet, and burn him to death ; but
the king forestalled and slew him, though slain by him in
return. Hence the crime of one proved the destruction of
both ; and thus, though the trick succeeded against the foe,
it did not bestow immunity on its author.

Frode was succeeded by his son In gild, whose soul was
perverted from honour. He forsook the examples of his fore-
fathers, and utterly enthralled himself to the lures of the most
wanton profligacy. Thus he had not a shadow of goodms>
and righteousness, but embraced vices instead of virtue ; he cut
the sinews of self-control, neglected the duties of his kino-ly
station, and sank into a filthy slave of riot. Indeed, he fos-
tered everything that was adverse or ill -fitted to an orderly
life. He tainted the glories of his father and grandfather
by practising the foulest lusts, and bedimmed the brightest
honours of his ancestors by most shameful deeds. For he was
so prone to gluttony, that he had no desire to avenge his father,
or repel the aggressions of his foes ; and so, could he but gratify
his gullet, he thought that decency and self-control need be
observed in nothing. By idleness and sloth he stained his
glorious lineage, living a loose and sensual life; and his soul,
so degenerate, so far perverted and astray from the steps of
his fathers, he loved to plunge into most abominable gulfs
of foulness. Fowl-fatteners, scullions, frying-pans, countless

book six. 233

cook-houses, different cooks to roast or spice the banquet —
the choosing of these stood to him for glory. As to arms,
soldiering, and wars, he could endure neither to train himself
to them, nor to let others practise them. Thus he cast away
all the ambitions of a man and aspired to those of women ;
for his incontinent itching of palate stirred in him love of
every kitchen-stench. Ever breathing of his debauch, and
stripped of every rag of soberness, with his foul breath he
belched the undigested filth in his belly. He was as infamous
in wantonness as Frode was illustrious in war. So utterly
had his spirit been enfeebled by the untimely seductions
of gluttony. Starkad was so disgusted at the excess of
Ingild, that he forsook his friendship, and sought the fellow-
ship of Half dan, the King of the Swedes, preferring work to
idleness. Thus he could not bear so much as to countenance
excessive indulgence. Now the sons of Swp.rt.ingj fearing
that they would have to pay to Ingild the penalty of their
father's crime, were fain to forestall his vengeance by a
gift, and gave him their sister in marriage. Antiquity1 relates
that she bore him sons, Frode, Fridleif, Ingild, and Olaff
(whom some say was the son of Ingild's sister).

Ingild's sister Helga had been led by amorous wooing to
return the flame of a certain low-born goldsmith, who was apt
for soft words, and furnished with divers of the little gifts
which best charm a woman's wishes. For since the death of
the king there had been none to honour the virtues of the father
by attention to the child ; she had lacked protection, and had no
guardians. When Starkad had learnt this from the repeated
tales of travellers, he could not bear to let the wantonness of
the smith pass unpunished. For he was always heedful to bear
kindness in mind, and as ready to punish arrogance. So he
hastened to chastise such bold and enormous insolence, wishing
to repay the orphan ward the benefits he had of old received
from Frode. Then he travelled through Sweden, went into
the house of the smith, and posted himself near the threshold,

1 Antiquity relates] A very corrupt passage. We follow, as usual,
the reading which Holder adopts from M. and St.

[IQO]

234 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

muffling his face in a cap to avoid discovery. The smith,
who had not learnt the lesson that "strong hands are sometimes
found under a mean garment", reviled him, and bade him
quickly leave the house, saying that he should have the last
broken victuals among the crowd of paupers. But the old
man, whose ingrained self-control lent him patience, was
nevertheless fain to rest there, and gradually study the wanton-
ness of his host. For his reason was stronger than his im-
petuosity, and curbed his increasing rage. Then the smith
approached the girl with open shamelessness, and cast himself
in her lap, offering the hair of his head to be combed out by
her maidenly hands. Also he thrust forward his loin-cloth,
and required her help in picking out the fleas ; and exacted from
this woman of lordly lineage that she should not blush to put
her sweet fingers in a foul apron. Then, believing that he was
free to have his pleasure, he ventured to put his longing
palms within her gown and to set his unsteady hands close to
her breast. But she, looking narrowly, was aware of the
presence of the old man whom she once had known, and felt
ashamed. She spurned the wanton and libidinous fingering,
and repulsed the unchaste hands, telling the man also that he
[191] had need of arms, and urging him to cease his lewd sport. Star-
kad, who had sat down by the door, with the hat muffling his
head, had already become so deeply enraged at this sight, that
he could not find patience to hold his hand any longer, but
put away his covering and clapped his right hand to his sword
to draw it. Then the smith, whose only skill was in lewd-
ness, faltered with sudden alarm, and finding that it had come
to fighting, gave up all hope of defending himself, and saw in
flight the only remedy for his need. Thus it was as hard to
break out of the door, of which the enemy held the approach,
as it was grievous to await the smiter within the house. At
last necessity forced him to put an end to his delay, and he
judged that a hazard wherein there lay but the smallest chance
of safety was more desirable than sure and manifest danger.
Also, hard as it was to fly, the danger being so close, yet he
desired tlight because it seemed to bring him aid, and to be

BOOK SIX. 235

the nearer way to safety ; and he cast aside delay, which seemed
to be an evil bringing not the smallest help, but perhaps irre-
trievable ruin. But just as he gained the threshold, the old
man watching at the door smote him through the hams, and
there, half dead, he tottered and fell. For the smiter thought he
ought carefully to avoid lending his illustrious hands to the
death of a vile cinder-blower, and considered that ignominy
would punish his shameless passion worse than death. Thus
some men think that he who suffers misfortune is worse
punished than he who is slain outright. Thus it was brought
about, that the maiden, who had never had parents to tend
her, came to behave like a woman of well-trained nature, and
did the part, as it were, of a zealous guardian to herself. And
when Stark ad, looking round, saw that the household sorrowed
over the late loss of their master, he heaped shame on the
wounded man with more invective, and thus began to mock :

" Why is the house silent and aghast ? What makes this
new grief ? Or where now rests that doting husband whom
the steel has just punished for his shameful love ? Keeps he
still aught of his pride and lazy wantonness ? Holds he to
his quest, glows his lust as hot as before ? Let him while
away an hour with me in converse, and alla}^ with friendly
words my hatred of yesterday. Let your visage come forth
with better cheer ; let not lamentation resound in the house,
or suffer the faces to become dulled with sorrow. Wishing
to know who burned with love for the maiden, and was
deeply enamoured of my beloved ward, I put on a cap, lest [192]
my familiar face might betray me. Then comes in that
wanton smith, with lewd steps, bending his thighs this way
and that with studied gesture, and likewise making eyes as he
ducked all ways. His covering was a mantle fringed with
beaver, his sandals were inlaid with gems, his cloak was
decked with gold. Gorgeous ribbons bound his plaited hair,
and a many-coloured1 band drew tight his straying locks.

1 Many-coloured] vdricata (from varicare, " to straddle"), explained by
M. as here equal to "broad", must be, as the quantity shows, a mistake
for variata.

236 SAXO GRAMMATICTTS.

Hence grew a sluggish and puffed-up temper ; he fancied
that wealth was birth, and money forefathers, and reckoned
his fortune more by riches than by blood. Hence came pride
unto him, and arrogance led to fine attire. For the wretch
began to think that his dress made him equal to the high-
born ; he, the cinder-blower, who hunts the winds with
hides, and puffs with constant draught, who rakes the ashes
with his fingers, and often by drawing back the bellows
takes in the air, and with a little fan makes a breath and
kindles the smouldering fires ! Then he goes to the lap of the
girl, and leaning close, says, ' Maiden, comb my hair and catch
the skipping fleas, and remove what stings my skin.' Then he
sat and spread his arms that sweated under the gold,1 lolling on
the smooth cushion and leaning back on his elbow, wishing to
flaunt his adornment, just as a barking brute unfolds the
gathered coils of its twisted tail. But she knew me, and began
to check her lover and rebuff his wanton hands; and, declaring
that it was I, she said, ' Refrain thy fingers, check thy prompt-
ings, take heed to appease the old man sitting close by the doors.
The sport will turn to sorrow. I think Starkad is here, and
his slow gaze scans thy doings.' The smith answered : ' Turn
not pale at the peaceful raven and the ragged old man ; never
has that mighty one whom thou fearest stooped to such
common and base attire. The strong man loves shining
raiment, and looks for clothes to match his courage.' Then
I uncovered and drew my sword, and as the smith fled I clove
his privy parts; his hams were laid open, cut away from
[193] the bone; they showed his entrails. Presently I rise and
crush the girl's mouth with my fist, and draw blood from
her bruised nostril. Then her lips, used to evil laughter, were
wet with tears mingled with blood, and foolish love paid for
all the sins it committed with soft eyes. Over is the sport of
the hapless woman who rushes on, blind with desire, like a
maddened mare, and makes her lust the grave of her beauty.
Thou deservest to be sold for a price to foreign peoples and to

1 OoM] aura sudantia brachia. Juv. i. 28 : Ventilet cestivum digitis
'I'luntibns aurvm.

BOOK SIX.

237

grind at the mill, unless blood pressed from thy breasts prove
thee falsely accused, and thy nipple's lack of milk clear thee
of the crime. Howbeit, I think thee free from this fault ; yet
bear not tokens of suspicion, nor lay thyself open to lying
tongues, nor give thyself to the chattering populace to
gird at. Rumour hurts many, and a lying slander often
harms. A little word deceives the thoughts of common men.
Respect thy grandsires, honour thy fathers, forget not thy
parents, value thy forefathers ; let thy flesh and blood keep
its fame. What madness came on thee ? And thou, shame-
less smith, what fate drove thee in thy lust to attempt a
high-born race ? Or who sped thee, maiden, worthy of the
lordliest pillows, to loves obscure ? Tell me, how durst thou
taste with thy rosy lips a mouth reeking of ashes, or endure
on thy breast hands filthy with charcoal, or bring close to thy
side the arms that turn the live coals over, and put the palms
hardened with the use of the tongs to thy pure cheeks, and
embrace the head sprinkled with embers, taking it to thy bright
arms ? I remember how smiths differ from one another, for
once they smote me.1 All share alike the name of their
calling, but the hearts beneath are different in temper. I
judge those best who weld warriors' swords and spears for
the battle, whose temper shows their courage, who betoken
their hearts by the sternness of their calling, whose work
declares their prowess. There are also some to whom the
hollow mould yields bronze, as they make the likeness of
divers things in molten gold, who smelt the veins and recast
the metal. But Nature has fashioned these of a softer temper,
and has crushed with cowardice the hands which she has
gifted with rare skill. Often such men, while the heat of the [J94]
blast melts the bronze that is poured in the mould, craftily
filch flakes of gold from the lumps, when the vessel thirsts
after the metal they have stolen."

So speaking, Starkad got as much pleasure from his words
as from his works, and went back to Half dan, embracing his
service with the closest friendship, and never ceasing from the

1 Alluding to his adventures in Thelemark. See Starkad's song, v, 121.

238 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

exercise of war; so that he weaned his mind from delights,
and vexed it with incessant application to arms.

Now Ingild had two sisters, Helga and Asa ; Helga was
of full age to marry, while Asa was younger and unripe
for wedlock. Then Helge the Norwegian was moved with
desire to ask for Helga for his wife, and embarked. Now he
had equipped his vessel so luxuriously that he had lordly sails
decked with gold, held up also on gilded masts, and tied with
crimson ropes. When he arrived Ingild promised to grant
him his wish if, to test his reputation publicly, he would
first venture to meet in battle the champions pitted against
him. Helge did not flinch at the terms ; he answered that he
would most gladly abide by the compact. And so the troth-
plight of the future marriage was most ceremoniouslysolemnised.
A story is remembered that there had grown up at the same
time, on the Isle of Zealand, the nine sons of a certain prince, all
highly gifted with strength and valour, the eldest of whom
was Anganty. This last was a rival suitor for the same
maiden ; and when he saw that the match which he had been
denied was promised to Helge, he challenged him to a struggle,
wishing to fight away his vexation. Helge agreed to the
proposed combat. The hour of the fight was appointed for
the wedding-day by the common wish of both. For any man
who, being challenged, refused to fight, used to be covered
with disgrace in the sight of all men. Thus Helge was
tortured on the one side by the shame of refusing the battle,
on the other by the dread of waging it. For he thought
himself attacked unfairly and counter to the universal laws
of combat, as he had apparently undertaken to fight nine men
single-handed. While he was thus reflecting his betrothed
told him that he would need help, and counselled him to
refrain from the battle, wherein it seemed he would encounter
only death and disgrace, especially as he had not stipulated
for any definite limit to the number of those who were to
be his opponents. He should therefore avoid the peril, and
consult his safety by appealing to Starkad, who was sojourning
among the Swedes; since it was his way to help the dis-
[195] tressed, and often to interpose successfully to retrieve some

BOOK SIX. 239

dismal mischance. Then Helge, who liked this counsel well,
took a small escort and went into Sweden ; and when he
reached its most famous city, Upsala, he forbore to enter, but
sent in a messenger who was to invite Starkad to the wedding
of Frode's daughter, after first greeting him respectfully to try
him. This courtesy stung Starkad like an insult. He looked
sternly on the youth, and said, "That had he not had his beloved
Frode named in his instructions, he should have paid dearly for
his senseless mission. He must think that Starkad, like some
buffoon or trencherman, was accustomed to rush off to the reek
of a distant kitchen for the sake of a richer diet." Helge, when
his servant had told him this, greeted the old man in the name of
Frode's daughter, and asked him to share a battle which he had
accepted upon being challenged, saying that he was not equal
to it by himself, the terms of the agreement being such as to
leave the number of his adversaries uncertain. Starkad, when
he had heard the time and place of the combat, not only
received the suppliant well, but also encouraged him with the
offer of aid, and told him to go back to Denmark with his
companions, telling him that he would find his way to him by
a short and secret path. Helge departed, and if we may trust
report, Starkad, by sheer speed of foot, travelled in one day's
journeying over as great a space as those who went before him
are said to have accomplished in twelve ; so that both parties,
by a chance meeting, reached their journey's end, the palace of
Ingild, at the very same time. Here Starkad passed, just as
the servants did, along the tables filled with guests; and the
aforementioned nine, howling horribly with repulsive gestures,
and running about as if they were on the stage, encouraged
one another to the battle. Some say that they barked like
furious dogs at the champion as he approached. Starkad re-
buked them for making themselves look ridiculous with such an
unnatural visage, and for clowning with wide grinning cheeks ;
for from this, he declared, soft and effeminate profligates
derived their wanton incontinence. So when he was asked
whether he had valour enough to fight, he answered that
doubtless he was strong enough to meet, not merely one, but
any number that might come against him. And when the

240 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

nine heard this they understood that this was the man whom
they had heard would come to the succour of Helge from
[196] afar. Starkad also, to protect the bride-chamber with a
more diligent guard, voluntarily took charge of the watch ;
and, drawing back the doors of the bedroom, barred them
with a sword instead of a bolt, meaning to post himself so
as to give undisturbed quiet to their bridal. When Helge
woke, and, shaking off the torpor of sleep, remembered his
pledge, he thought of buckling on his armour. But, seeing
that a little of the darkness of night yet remained, and
wishing to wait for the hour of dawn, he began to ponder the
perilous business at hand, when sleep stole on him and sweetly
seized him, so that he took himself back to bed laden with
slumber. Starkad, coming in on him at daybreak, saw him
locked asleep in the arms of his wife, and would not suffer
him to be vexed with a sudden shock, or summoned from his
quiet slumbers ; lest he should seem to usurp the duty of
wakening him and breaking upon the sweetness of so new
a union, all because of cowardice. He thought it, therefore,
more handsome to meet the peril alone than to gain a com-
rade by disturbing the pleasure of another. So he quietly
retraced his steps, and scorning his enemies, entered the
field which in our tongue is called Koliung,1 and, finding a
seat under the slope of a certain hill, he exposed himself to
wind and snow. Then, as though the gentle airs of spring
weather were breathing upon him, he put off his cloak, and
set to picking out the fleas. He also cast on the briars a
purple mantle which Helga had lately given him, that no
clothing" might seem to lend him shelter against the ragino-
shafts of hail. Then the champions came and climbed
the hill on the opposite side ; and, seeking a spot sheltered
from the winds wherein to sit, they lit a fire and drove
off the cold. At last, not seeing Starkad, they sent a man
to the crest of the hill, to watch his coming more clearly,
as from a watch-tower. This man climbed to the top of the
lofty mountain, and saw, on its sloping side, an old man

1 Roliung] The burial-place of Starkad in Bk. vin is called Bolung.

BOOK six. 241

covered shoulder-high with the snow that showered down.
He asked him if he was the man who was to fight according
to the promise. Starkad declared that he was. Then the
rest came up and asked him whether he had resolved to meet
them all at once or one by one. But he said, " Whenever a
surly pack of curs yelps at me, I commonly send them
flying all at once, and not in turn." Thus he let them know
that he would rather fight with them all together than one
by one, thinking that his enemies should be spurned with
words first and deeds afterwards. The fight began, and he
felled six of them without receiving any wound in return; and
though the remaining three wounded him so hard in seventeen [l97]
places that most of his bowels gushed out of his belly, he slew
them notwithstanding, like their brethren. Disembowelled,
with failing strength, he suffered from dreadful straits of thirst,
and, crawling on his knees in his desire to find a draught, he
longed for water from the streamlet that ran close by. But
when he saw it was tainted with gore he was disgusted at the
look of the water, and refrained from its infected draught. For
Anganty had been struck down in the waves of the river, and
had dyed its course so deep with his red blood that it seemed
now to flow not with water, but with some ruddy liquid. So
Starkad thought it nobler that his bodily strength should fail
than that he should borrow strength from so foul a beverage.
Therefore, his force being all but spent, he wriggled on his
knees up to a rock that happened to be lying near, and for
some little while lay leaning against it. A hollow in its
surface is still to be seen, just as if his weight as he lay had
marked it with a distinct impression of his body. But I
think this appearance is due to human handiwork, for it seems
to pass all belief that the hard and uncleavable rock should
so imitate the softness of wax, as, merely by the contact of a
man leaning on it, to present the appearance of a man having
sat there, and assume concavity for ever.

A certain man, who chanced to be passing by in a car, saw
Starkad wounded almost all over his body. Equally aghast
and amazed, he turned and drove closer, asking what re-

!>42 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

wan I lie should have if he were to tend and heal his wounds.
But Starkad would rather be tortured by grievous wounds
than use the service of a man of base estate, and first asked
his birth and calling. The man said that his profession was
that of a sergeant.1 Starkad, not content with despising him,
also spurned him with revilings, because, neglecting all honour-
able business, he followed the calling of a hanger-on ; and be-
cause he had tarnished his whole career with ill repute, thinking
the losses of the poor his own gains ; suffering none to be
innocent, ready to inflict wrongful accusation upon all men,
most delighted at any lamentable turn in the fortunes of
another; and toiling most at his own design, namely of
treacherously spying out all men's doings, and seeking some
traitorous occasion to censure the character of the innocent.
As this man departed, another came up, promising aid and
remedies. Like the last comer, he was bidden to declare his
[198] condition; and he said that he had a certain man's handmaid to
wife, and was doing peasant service to her master in order to
set her free. Starkad refused to accept his help, because he
had married in a shameful way by taking a slave to his embraces.
Had he had a shred of virtue he should at least have disdained
to be intimate with the slave of another, but should have
enjoyed some freeborn partner of his bed. What a mighty
man, then, must we deem Starkad, who, when enveloped in the
most deadly perils, showed himself as great in refusing aid as
in receiving wounds !

When this man departed a woman chanced to approach and
walk past the old man. She came up to him in order to
wipe his wounds, but was first bidden to declare what was
her birth and calling. She said that she was a handmaid used
to grinding at the mill. Starkad then asked her if she had
children; and when he was told that she had a female child,
he told her to go home and give the breast to her squalling

1 Sergeant] preconia; apparently a kind of bailiff, who arrested,
exacted fines, and was held in much the same esteem as the modern
tax-gatherer. The expression, "calling of the hanger-on" [scurrilituti*
offUid] further defines his standing. See Ducange, s. v.

BOOK SIX. 248

daughter ; for he thought it most uncomely that he should
borrow help from a woman of the lowest degree. Moreover,
he knew that she could nourish her own flesh and blood with
milk better than she could minister to the wounds of a stranger.
While she also was departing, a young man followed, riding up
in a car. He saw the old man, and drew near to minister to his
wounds. On being asked who he was, he said his father was a
labourer, and added that he was used to the labours of a peasant.
Starkad praised his origin, and pronounced that his calling
was also most worthy of honour ; for, he said, such men
sought a livelihood by honourable traffic in their labour,
inasmuch as they knew not of any gain, save what they
had earned by the sweat of their brow. He also thought that
a country life was justly to be preferred even to the most
splendid riches ; for the most wholesome fruits of it seemed to
be born and reared in the shelter of a middle estate, halfway
between magnificence and squalor, But he did not wish to pass
the kindness of the youth unrequited, and rewarded the esteem
he had shown him with the mantle he had cast among the
thorns. So the peasant's son approached, replaced the parts
of his belly that had been torn away, and bound up with a
plait of withies the mass of intestines that had fallen out.
Then he took the old man to his car, and with the most
zealous respect carried him away to the palace.

Meantime Helga, in language betokening the greatest wari- [199]
ness, began to instruct her husband, saying that she knew that
Starkad, as soon as he came back from conquering the cham-
pions, would punish him for his absence, thinking that he had
inclined more to sloth and lust than to his promise to fight as
appointed. Therefore he must withstand Starkad boldly, be-
cause he always spared the brave but loathed the coward.
Helge respected equally her prophecy and her counsel, and
braced his soul and body with a glow of valorous enterprise.
Starkad, when he had been driven to the palace, heedless of
the pain of his wounds, leaped swiftly out of the car, and, just
like a man who was well from top to toe, burst into the bridal-
chamber, shattering the doors with his fist. Then Helge leapt

K 2

244 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

from his bed, and, as he bad been taught by the counsel of his
wife, plunged his blade full at Starkad's forehead. And since
he seemed to be meditating a second blow, ;md to be about to
make another thrust with his sword, Helga new quickly from
the couch, caught up a shield, and, by interposing it, saved the
old man from impending destruction ; for, notwithstanding,
Helae with a stronger stroke of his blade smote the shield
right through to the boss. Thus the praiseworthy wit of the
woman aided her friend, and her hand saved him whom her
counsel had injured ; for she protected the old man by her
deed, as well as her husband by her warning. Starkad was
induced by this to let Helge go scot-free ; saying that a man
whose ready and assured courage so surely betokened manli-
ness, ought to be spared ; for he vowed that a man ill
deserved death whose brave spirit was graced with such a
dogged will to resist.

Starkad went back to Sweden before his wounds had been
treated with medicine, or covered with a single scar. Half dan
had been killed by his rivals; and Starkad, after quelling certain
rebels, set up Si ward as the heir to his father's sovereignty.
With him he sojourned a long time ; but when he heard — for
the rumour spread — that Ingild, the son of Frode (who had
been treacherously slain), was perversely minded, and instead
of punishing his father's murderers, bestowed upon them kind-
ness and friendship, he was vexed with stinging wrath at so
dreadful a crime. And, resenting that a youth of such great
parts should have renounced his descent from his glorious
father, he hung on his shoulders a mighty mass of charcoal,
as though it were some costly burden, and made his way to
Denmark. When asked by those he met why he was taking
along so unusual a load, he said that he would sharpen the
dull wits of King Ingild to a point1 by bits of charcoal. So lie
accomplished a swift and headlong journey, as though at a
[200] single breath, by a short and speedy track ; and at last, be-
coming the guest of Ingild, he went up, as his custom was,

1 Sharper the dull wits of King [ngild to a point] i.e., hs if by
melting them in the charcoal, and forging them anew.

book six. 245

into the seat appointed for the great men ; for he had been
used to occupy the highest post of distinction with the kings
of the last generation. When the queen came in, and saw
him covered with filth and clad in the mean, patched
clothes of a peasant, the ugliness of her guest's dress made her
judge him with little heed ; and, measuring the man by the
clothes, she reproached him with crassness of wit, because he
had gone before greater men in taking his place at table, and
had assumed a seat that was too good for his boorish attire.
She bade him quit the place, that he might not touch the
cushions with his dress, which was fouler than it should have
been. For she put down to crassness and brazenness what
Starkad only did from proper pride ; she knew not that on
a high seat of honour the mind sometimes shines brighter
than the raiment. The spirited old man obeyed, though vexed
at the rebuff, and with marvellous self-control choked down
the insult which his bravery so ill deserved ; uttering at the
disgrace he had received neither word nor groan. But he
could not long bear to hide the bitterness of his anger in
silence. Rising, and retreating to the furthest end of the
palace, he flung his body against the walls ; and strong as they
were, he so battered them with the shock, that the beams
quaked mightily ; and he nearly brought the house down in a
crash. Thus, stung not only with his rebuff, but with the
shame of having poverty cast in his teeth, he unsheathed his
wrath against the insulting speech of the queen with inexor-
able sternness.

Ingild, on his return from hunting, scanned him closely ;
and, when he noticed that he neither looked cheerfully about,
nor paid him the respect of rising, saw by the sternness
written on his brow that it was Starkad. For when he noted
his hands horny with fighting, his scars in front, the force and
fire of his eye, he perceived that a man whose body was
seamed with so many traces of wounds had no weakling soul.
He therefore rebuked his wife, and charged her roundly to
put away her haughty tempers, and to soothe and soften with
kind words and gentle offices the man she had reviled ; to

246 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

comfort him with food and drink, and refresh him with kindly
converse ; saying, that this man had been appointed his tutor
by his father long ago, and had been a most tender guardian
of his childhood. Then, learning too late the temper of
the old man, she turned her harshness into gentleness, and
respectfully waited on him whom she had rebuffed and railed
at with bitter revilings. The angry hostess changed her part,
[201] and became the most fawning of flatterers. She wished to
check his anger with her attentiveness ; and her fault was
the less, inasmuch as she was so quick in ministering to him
after she had been chidden. But she paid dearly for it, for
she presently beheld stained with the blood of her brethren
the place where she had flouted and rebuffed the brave old
man from his seat.

Now, in the evening, Ingild took his meal with the sons of
Swertinff. and fell to a magnificent feast, loading the tables
with the profusest dishes. With friendly invitation he kept
the old man back from leaving the revel too early ; as
though the delights of elaborate dainties could have under-
mined that staunch and sturdy virtue ! But when Stark ad
had set eyes on these things, he scorned so wanton a use of
them ; and, not to give way a whit to foreign fashions, he
steeled his appetite against these tempting delicacies with the
self-restraint which was his greatest strength. He would not
suffer his repute as a soldier to be impaired by the allurements
of an orgy. For his valour loved thrift, and was a stranger to
all superfluity of food, and averse to feasting in excess. For
his was a courage which never at any moment had time to
make luxury of aught account, and always forewent pleasure to
pay due heed to virtue. So when he saw that the antique
character of self-restraint, and all good old customs, were being
corrupted by new-fangled luxury and sumptuosity, he wished
to be provided with a morsel fitter for a peasant, and scorned
the costly and lavish feast. Thus, spurning profuse indulgence
in food, he took some smoky and rather rancid fare, appeasing
his hunger with a better relish because more simply ; and
being unwilling to enfeeble his true valour with the tainted

book six. 247

sweetness of sophisticated foreign dainties, or break the rule
of antique plainness by such strange idolatries of the belly.
He was also very wroth that they should go to the extrava-
gance of havino- the same meat both roasted and boiled at the
same meal; for he considered an eatable which was steeped in
the vapours of the kitchen, and which the skill of the cook
rubbed over with many kinds of flavours, in the light of a
monstrosity. Unlike him, Ingild flung the example of his
ancestors to the winds, and gave himself freer licence of inno-
vation in the fashions of the table than the custom of his
fathers allowed. For when he had once abandoned himself
to the manners of Teutonland, he did not blush to yield to its
unmanly wantonness. No slight incentives to debauchery
have flowed down our country's throat from that sink of a
land. Hence came magnificent dishes, sumptuous kitchens, [202]
the base service of cooks, and all sorts of abominable sausages.
Hence came our adoption, wandering from the ways of our
fathers, of a more dissolute dress. Thus our country, which
cherished self-restraint as its native quality, has gone begging
to our neighbours for luxury ; whose allurements so charmed
Ingild, that he did not think it shameful to requite wrongs
with kindness ; nor did the grievous murder of his father
make him heave one sigh of bitterness when it crossed his
mind.

But1 the queen would not depart without effecting her
purpose. Thinking that presents would be the best way
to banish the old man's anger, she took oft' her own head
a band of marvellous handiwork, and put it in his lap as
he supped ; desiring to buy his favour, since she could not
blunt his courage. But Starkad, whose bitter resentment
was not yet2 abated, flung it back in the face of the giver,
thinking that in such a gift there was more scorn than

1 The next two paragraphs, down to p. 248, " But the woman," etc., are
not needed ; they are repetitions of the song and comment, p. 251, etc.

2 Not yet] necdum. Here begins Laverentzen's fragment (" C"), con-
tinuing to the place noted on p. 263, but with a large gap in the middle,
from '• I am baited", p. 251, to "lack the last rites", p. 258.

248 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

respect. And he was wise not to put this strange ornament
of female dress upon the head that was all bescarred and used
to the helmet ; for he knew that the locks of a man ought not
to wear a woman's head-band. Thus he avenged slight with
slight, and repaid with retorted scorn the disdain he had re-
ceived ; thereby bearing himself well-nigh as nobly in aveng-
ing his disgrace as he had borne himself in enduring it. To
the soul of this old warrior reverence for Frode was grappled
with indissoluble hooks of friendship. Drawn to him by count-
less deeds of bounty, countless kindnesses, he could not be
wheedled into giving up his purpose of revenge by any sort of
alluring complaisance. Even now, when Frode was no more,
he was eager to pay the gratitude due to his benefits, and to
requite the kindness of the dead, whose loving disposition and
generous friendship he had experienced while he lived. For
he bore graven so deeply in his heart the grievous picture of
Frode's murder, that his honour for that most famous captain
could never be plucked from the inmost chamber of his
soul ; and therefore he did not hesitate to rank his ancient
friendship before the present kindness. Besides, when he
recalled the previous affront, he could not thank the com-
plaisance that followed ; he could not put aside the disgraceful
wound to his self-respect. For the memory of benefits or in-
juries ever sticks more firmly in the minds of brave men than
in those of weaklings. For he had not the habits of those who
follow their friends in prosperity and quit them in adversity,
who pay more regard to fortune than to looks, and sit closer
[203] to their own gain than to charity towards others.

But1 the woman held to her purpose, seeing that even so she
could not win the old man to convivial mirth. Continuing with
yet more lavish courtesy her efforts to soothe him, and to heap
more honours on the guest, she bade a piper strike up, and
started music to melt his unbending rage. For she wanted to
unnerve his stubborn nature by means of cunning sounds. But

1 This paragraph on the piper ought to follow p. 255, 1. 9, after
"manners". Unfortunately, as noticed on p. 250, the verses of the
song referring to the "actor" are lost.

BOOK SIX. 24D

the cajolery of pipe or .string was just as powerless to enfeeble
that dogged warrior. When he heard it, he felt that the respect
paid him savoured more of pretence than of love. Hence the
crestfallen performer seemed to be playing to a statue rather
than a man, and learnt that it is vain for buffoons to assail with
their tricks a settled and weighty sternness, and that a mighty
mass cannot be shaken with the idle puffing of the lips. For
Starkad had set his face so firmly in his stubborn wrath, that
he seemed not a whit easier to move than ever. For the
inflexibility which he owed his vows was not softened either
by the strain of the lute or the enticements of the palate; and
he thought that more respect should be paid to his strenuous
and manly purpose than to the tickling of the ears or the lures
of the feast. Accordingly he flung the bone, which he had
stripped in eating the meat, in the face of the harlequin,1 and
drove the wind violently out of his puffed cheeks, so that
they collapsed. By this he showed how his austerity loathed
the clatter of the stage ; for his ears were stopped with anger
and open to no influence of delight. This reward, befitting an
actor, punished an unseemly performance with a shameful
wage. For Starkad excellently judged the man's deserts, and
bestowed a shankbone for the piper to pipe on,2 requiting his
soft service with a hard fee. None could say whether the
actor piped or wept the louder ; he showed by his bitter flood
of tears how7 little place bravery has in the breasts of the
dissolute. For the fellow was a mere minion of pleasure, and
had never learnt to bear the assaults of calamity. This man's
hurt was ominous of the carnaoe that was to follow at the
feast. Right well did Starkad's spirit, heedful of sternness,
hold with stubborn gravity to steadfast revenge ; for he was
as much disgusted at the lute as others were delighted, and
repaid the unwelcome service by insultingly flinging a bone ;
thus avowing that he owed a greater debt to the glorious dust
of his mighty friend than to his shameless and infamous ward.

1 Harlequin] gesticulantis.

2 Shankbone for the piper to pipe on J tibiciui tibiam.

250 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Then, to revile the actor more at length, he composed a song
after this manner1 . . . But the queen marvelled at the valour
[204] which she was powerless to enfeeble, and ended by admiring
the man whom she had vainly courted with benefits.

But when Starkad saw that the slayers of Frode were in
high favour with the king, his stern glances expressed the
mighty wrath which he harboured, and his face betrayed what
he felt. The visible fury of his gaze betokened the secret
tempest in his heart. At last, when Ingild tried to appease
him with royal fare, he spurned the dainty. Satisfied with
cheap and common food, he utterly spurned outlandish
delicacies ; he was used to plain diet, and would not pamper
his palate with any delightful flavour. When he was asked
why he had refused the generous attention of the king with
such a clouded brow, he said that he had come to Denmark to
find the son of Frode, not a man who crammed his proud and
gluttonous stomach with rich elaborate feasts. For the Teuton
extravagance which the king; favoured had led him, in his
longing for the pleasures of abundance, to set to the fire again,
for roasting, dishes which had been already boiled. There-
upon he could not forbear from attacking Ingild's character,
but poured out the whole bitterness of his reproaches on his
head. He condemned his unfilial spirit, because he gaped
with repletion and vented his squeamishness in filthy hawk-
ings ; because, following the lures of the Saxons, he strayed
and departed far from soberness ; because he was so lacking
in manhood as not to pursue even the faintest shadow of it.
But, declared Starkad, he bore the heaviest load of infamy,
l>ccause, even when he first began to see service, he forgot to
avenge his father, to whose butchers, forsaking the law of
nature, he was kind and attentive. Men whose deserts
were most vile he welcomed with loving affection ; and not
only did he let those go scot-free, whom he should have

1 A song after this manner] huiusmodi carmen. So C; the ed. pr. has
mox citandum carmen. C is probably right, and this song has dropped
out; for the song "soon to be quoted", p. 251, does not "revile fc^»e
actor " at all.

BOOK SIX. 2. 51

punished most sharply, but he even judged them tit persons
to live with and entertain at his table, whereas he should
rather have put them to death. Hereupon Starkad is also
said to have sung as follows :

" Let the unwarlike youth yield to the aged, let him honour
all the years of him that is old. When a man is brave, let
none reproach the number of his days.

" Though the hair of the ancient whiten with age, their
valour stays still the same ; nor shall the lapse of time have [205]
power to weaken their manly heart.

" I am elbowed away by the offensive1 guest, who taints with
vice his outward show of goodness, whilst he is the slave of
his belly and prefers his daily dainties to anything.

" When I was counted as the comrade of Frode, I ever sat
in the midst of warriors on a high seat2 in the hall, and I was
the first of the princes to take my meal.

"Now, the lot of a nobler age is reversed ; I am shut in a
corner, I am like the fish that seeks shelter as it wanders to
and fro hidden in the waters.

" I, who used surely in the former age to lie back on a
couch handsomely spread, am now thrust among the hindmost
and driven from the crowded hall.

" Perchance I had been driven on my back at the doors,
had not the wall struck my side and turned me back, and had
not the beam in the way made it hard for me to fly when I
was thrust forth.

" I am baited with the jeers of the court-folk ; I am not
received as a guest should be ; I am girded at with harsh
gibing, and stung with babbling taunts.

" I am a stranger, and would gladly know what news are
spread abroad by busy rumour, what is the course of events,
what the order of the land, what is doing in your country.

" Thou, Ingilcl, buried in sin, why dost thou tarry in the
task of avenging thy father ? Wilt thou think tranquilly of
the slaughter of thy righteous sire ?

1 Offensive] gravis. Query "gorged", " heavy with food" ?

2 On a high seat] sublimis. See note on next page.

252 SAXn OHAMMATICUS.

[206] " Why dost thou, sluggard, think only of feasting, and lean

thy belly back in ease, more effeminate than harlots ? Is the
avenging of thy slaughtered father a little thing to thee ?

"When last I left thee, Frode, I learned by my prophetic
soul that thou, mightiest of kings, would st surely perish by the
sword of enemies ;

" And while I travelled long in the land, a warning groan
rose in my soul, which augured that thereafter I was never
to see thee more.

" Wo is me, that then I was far away, harrying the farthest
peoples of the earth, when the traitorous guest aimed craftily
at the throat of his kino-.

" Else I would either have shown myself the avenger of my
lord, or have shared his fate and fallen where he fell, and
would joyfully have followed the blessed king in one and the
same death.

" I have not come to indulge in gluttonous feasting, the
sin whereof I will strive to chastise ; nor will I take mine ease,
nor the delights of the fat belly.

" No famous king has ever set me before in the middle by
the strangers.1 I have been wont to sit in the highest seats
among friends.

" I have come from Sweden, travelling over wide lands,
thinking that 1 should be rewarded, if only I had the joy to
find the son of my beloved Frode.

" But I sought a brave man, and I have come to a

glutton, a king who is the slave of his belly and of vice,

whose liking has been turned back towards wantonness by

filthy pleasure.

[2071 " Famous is the speech men think that Halfdan spoke : he

1 In the middle by the strangers] Contrast the fourth stanza above,
where Starkad says that he used to sit on the high seat "in the midst of
the warriors'. In the 0. Norse hall there were two long tables, joined by
a shorter one at the western end, at which the king sat in his high seat.
In the middle of the table on the northern side was a second h.gh seat,
where Starkad had been used to sit. But now, apparently, he was put
" in the midst" of the other long table, among strangers.

book six. 253

warned us it would soon come to pass that an understanding
father should bee-et a witless son.

" Though the heir be deemed degenerate, I will not suffer
the wealth of mighty Frode to profit strangers or to be made
public like plunder."

At these words the queen trembled, and she took from her
head the ribbon with which she happened, in woman's fashion,
to be adorning her hair, and proffered it to the enraged old
man, as though she could avert his anger with a gift.
Stark ad in anger flung it back most ignominiously in the
face of the giver, and began again in a loud voice :

" Take hence, I pray thee, thy woman's gift, and set back
thy headgear on thy head ; no brave man assumes the chaplets
that befit Love only.

:< For it is amiss that the hair of men that are ready for
battle should be bound back with wreathed gold ; such attire is
right for the throngs of the soft and effeminate.

" But take this gift to thy husband, who loves luxury, whose
finger itches, while he turns over the rump and handles the
flesh of the bird roasted brown.

" The flighty and skittish wife of Ingild longs to observe the
fashions of the Teutons ; she prepares the orgy and makes
ready the artificial dainties.

" For she tickles the palate with a new-fangled feast, she
pursues the zest of an unknown flavour, raging to load [208]
all the tables with dishes yet more richly than before.

" She gives her lord wine to drink in bowls, pondering
all things with zealous preparation ; she bids the cooked meats
be roasted, and intends them for a second fire.

' Wantonly she feeds her husband like a hog ; a shameless
whore, trusting ....

" She roasts the boiled, and recooks the roasted meats, plan-
ning the meal with spendthrift extravagance, careless of right
and wrong, practising sin, a foul woman.

' Wanton in arrogance, a soldier of Love, longing for dainties,
she abjures the fair ways of self-control, and also provides
devices for gluttony.

254 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

" With craving stomach she desires turnip strained in a
smooth pan, cakes with thin juice, and shellfish in rows.

" I do not remember the great Frode putting his hand to
the sinews of birds, or tearing the rump of a cooked fowl
with crooked thumb.

" What former king could have been so gluttonous as to stir
the stinking filthy flesh, or rummage in the foul back of a bird
with plucking fingers ?

" The food of valiant men is raw ; no need, methinks, of
sumptuous tables for those whose stubborn souls are bent on
warfare.
[209] « Jt na(j been fitter for thee to have torn the stiff beard,1
biting hard with thy teeth, than greedily to have drained the
bowl of milk with thy wide mouth.

" We fled from the offence of the sumptuous kitchen ; we
stayed our stomach with rancid fare ; few in the old days
loved cooked juices.

" A dish with no sauce of herbs gave us the flesh of rams
and swine. We partook temperately, tainting nothing with
bold excess.

" Thou who nowlickest the milk-white fat, put on, prithee, the
spirit of a man ; remember Frode, and avenge thy father's death.

"The worthless and cowardly heart shall perish, and shall
not parry the thrust of death by flight, though it bury itself
in a valley, or crouch in darkling dens.

" Once we were eleven princes, devoted followers of King
Hakon, and here Geigad2 sat above Helge in the order of the
meal.

" Geigad used to appease the first pangs of hunger with a
dry rump of ham ; plenty of hard crust quelled the craving of
his stomach.

" No one asked for a sickly morsel ; all took their food
in common ; the meal of mighty men cost but slight display.

1 Tom the stiff beard . . . .] Perhaps that of the enemy, in battle :
but probably his own beard : the reference being to some proverbial
expression, " Better eat your own beard.'

2 Geigad I <!<<j<itln<s ; ed. />r. has wrongly Begathus. See note on p. 228.

BOOK STX. 255

"The commons shunned foreign victual, and the greatest [210]
lusted not for a feast ; even the kino- remembered to live
temperately at little cost.

"Scorning to look at the mead, he drank the fermented
juice of Ceres ; he shrank not from the use of under-cooked
meats, and hated the roast.

"The board used to stand with slight display, a modest
salt-cellar showed the measure of its cost ; lest the wise
ways of antiquity should in any wise be changed by foreign
usage.

" Of old, no man put flagons or mixing-bowls on the tables ;
the steward filled the cup from the butt, and there was no
abundance of adorned vessels.

" No one who honoured past ages put the smooth wine-jars
beside the tankards, and of old no bedizened lackey heaped the
platter with dainties.

" Nor did the vainglorious host deck the meal with little
salt-shell or smooth cup ; but all has been now abolished in
shameful wise by the new-fangled manners.

" Who would ever have borne to take money in ransom for
the death of a lost parent, or to have asked a foe for a gift to
atone for the murder of a father ?

" What strong heir or well-starred son would have sat side
by side with such as these, letting a shameful bargain utterly
unnerve the warrior ?

" Wherefore, when the honours of kings are sung, and bards [211]
relate the victories of captains, I hide my face for shame in
my mantle, sick at heart.

" For nothing shines in thy trophies, worthy to be recorded
by the pen ; no heir of Frode is named in the roll of the
honourable.

" Why dost thou vex me with insolent gaze, thou who
honourest the foe guilty of thy father's blood, and art thought
only to take thy vengeance with loaves and warm soup ?

" When men speak well of the avengers of crimes, then long
thou to lose thy quick power of hearing, that thy impious spirit
may not be ashamed.

256 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

' For oft has the virtue of another vexed a heart that knows
its guilt, and the malice in the breast is abashed by the fair
report of the good.

"Though thou go to the East, or live sequestered in the
countries of the West, or whether, driven thence, thou seek
the midmost place of the earth;

" Whether thou revisit the cold quarter of the heaven where
the pole is to be seen, and carries on the sphere with its swift
spin, and looks down upon the neighbouring Bear;

" Shame shall accompany thee far, and shall smite thy
countenance with heavy disgrace, when the united assembly
of the great kings is taking pastime.

" Since everlasting dishonour awaits thee, thou canst not
come amidst the ranks of the famous ; and in every clime
thou shalt pass thy days in infamy.
[212] "The fates have given Frode an offspring born into the
world when gods were adverse, whose desires have been
enthralled by crime and ignoble lust.

" Even as in a ship all things foul gather to the filthy hollow
of the bilge, even so hath a flood of vices poured into Ingilcl.

" Therefore, in terror of thy shame being published, thou
shalt lie crushed in the corners of thj land, sluggish on
thy foul hearth, and never to be seen in the array of the
famous.

" Then shalt thou shake thy beard at thine evil fate, kept
down by the taunts of thy mistresses, when thy paramour galls
thy ear with her querulous cries.

" Since chill fear retards thy soul, and thou dreadest to be-
come the avenger of thy sire, thou art utterly degenerate, and
thy ways are like a slave's.

" It would have needed scant preparation to destroy thee ;
even as if a man should catch and cut the throat of a kid, or
slit the weazand of a soft sheep and butcher it.

" Behold, a son of the tyrant Swerting shall take the in-
heritance of Denmark after thee ; he whose slothful sister
thou keepest in infamous union.

" Whilst thou delightest to honour thy bride, laden with

BOOK SIX. 257

gems and shining in gold apparel, we burn with an indignation
that is linked with shame, lamenting thy infamies.

" When thou art stirred by furious lust, our mind is
troubled, and recalls the fashion of ancient times, and bids us
grieve sorely.

" For we rate otherwise than thou the crime of the foes
whom now thou holdest in honour ; wherefore the face of
this age is a burden to me, remembering the ancient ways.

" I would crave no greater blessing, 0 Frode, if I might see
those guilty of thy murder duly punished for such a crime."

Now he prevailed so well by this stirring counsel, that his [213]
reproach served like a flint wherewith to strike a blazing flame
of valour in the soul that had been chill and slack. For
the king had at first heard the song inattentively ; but, stirred
by the earnest admonition of his guardian, he conceived in his
heart a tardy fire of revenge; and, forgetting the reveller, he
changed into the foeman. At last he leapt up from where he
lay, and poured the whole flood of his anger on those at table
with him ; insomuch that he unsheathed his sword upon the
sons of Swerting with bloody ruthlessness, and aimed with
drawn blade at the throats of those whose gullets he had
pampered with the pleasures of the table. These men he
forthwith slew ; and by so doing he drowned the holy rites of
the table in blood. He sundered the feeble bond of their
league, and he exchanged a shameful revel for enormous
cruelty ; the host became the foe, and that vilest slave of
excess the bloodthirsty agent of revenge. For the vigorous
pleading of his counsellor bred a breath of courage in his soft
and unmanly youth ; it drew out his valour from its lurking-
place, and renewed it, and so fashioned it, that the authors of
a most grievous murder were punished even as they deserved.
For the young man's valour had been, not quenched, but only
in exile, and the aid of an old man had drawn it out into the
light ; and it accomplished a deed which was all the greater for
its tardiness ; for it was somewhat nobler to steep the cups in
blood than in wine. What a spirit, then, must we think that
old man had, who by his eloquent adjuration expelled from

258 SAXO GttAMMATtCl S.

that king's mind its infinite sin, and who, bursting the bonds
of iniquity, implanted a most effectual seed of virtue. Starkad
aided the king with equal achievements; and not only showed
the most complete courage in his own person, but summoned
back that which had been rooted out of the heart of another.
[214] When the deed was done, he thus began1:

" King Ingild, farewell ; thy heart, full of valour, hath now
shown a deed of daring. The spirit that reigns in thy body is
revealed by its fair beginning; nor did there lack deep counsel
in thy heart, though thou wert silent till this hour ; for thou
dost redress by thy bravery what delay had lost, and redeemest
the sloth of thy spirit by mighty valour. Come now, let us
rout the rest, and let none escape the peril which all alike
deserve. Let the crime come home to the culprit, let the sin
return and crush its contriver.

" Let the servants take up in a car the bodies of the slain,
and let the attendant quickly bear out the carcasses. Justly
shall they lack the last rites ; they are unworthy to be covered
with a mound ; let no funeral procession or pyre suffer them
the holy honour of a barrow ; let them be scattered to rot in
the fields, to be consumed by the beaks of birds ; let them
taint the country all about with their deadly corruption.'2

" Do thou too, king, if thou hast any wit, flee thy savage
bride, lest the she-wolf bring forth a litter like herself, and a
beast spring from thee that shall hurt its own father.

" Tell me, Rote,3 continual derider of cowards, thinkest thou
that we have avenged Frode enough, when we have spent seven
deaths on the vengeance of one ? Lo, those are borne out dead
who paid homage not to thy sway in deed, but only in show,
and though obsequious they planned treachery. But I always
cherished this hope, that noble fathers have noble offspring,
who will follow in their character the lot which they received
by their birth. Therefore, Ingild, better now than in time

1 Thus begun] What follows is in verse (hexameters) in the original.

2 Compare Anileth's speech, pp. 119-120, .supra.

:! Rote] Ixotho ; a name of one of the Walkyries in the prose Edd;i,
whom Odin sent out to choose who should fall in battle.

BOOK six. 259

past dost thou deserve to be called lord of Leire and of
Denmark.

"When. 0 King Hakon, I was a beardless youth, and followed
thy leading and command in warfare, I hated luxury and
wanton souls, and practised only wars. Training body and
mind together, I banished every unholy thing from my soul,
and shunned the pleasures of the belly, loving deeds of
prowess. For those that followed the calling of arms had
rough clothing and common gear and short slumbers and
scanty rest. Toil drove ease far away, and the time ran
by at scanty cost. Not as with some men now, the light of
whose reason is obscured by insatiate greed with its blind
maw. Some one of these clad in a covering of curiously [215]
wrought raiment effeminately guides the fleet-footed [steed],
and unknots his dishevelled locks, and lets his hair fly
abroad loosely.

" He loves to plead1 often in the court, and to covet a base
pittance, and with this pursuit he comforts his sluggish life,
doing with venal tongue the business entrusted to him.

" He outrages the laws by force, he makes armed assault
upon men's rights, he tramples on the innocent, he feeds
on the wealth of others,2 he practises debauchery and
gluttony, he vexes good fellowship with biting jeers, and goes
after harlots as a hoe after the grass.

" The coward falls when battles are lulled in peace. Though
he who fears death lie in the heart of a valley, no mantlet
shall shelter him. His final fate carries off every living man ;
doom is not to be averted by skulking. But I, who have
shaken the whole world with my slaughters, shall I enjoy a
peaceful death ? Shall I be taken up to the stars in a quiet
end ? Shall I die in my bed without a wound ? "

1 To plead] dicere. So C for the discere of ed. pr.

2 Wealth of others] alieno pascitur cere ; namely, by getting into debt.

END OF BOOK SIX.

S 2

BOOK SEVEN.

[216] We are told by historians of old,1 that Ingild had four sons,
of whom three perished in war, while Olaf alone reigned after
his father ; but some say that Olaf was the son of Ingild's
sister, though this opinion is doubtful. Posterity has but an
uncertain knowledge of his deeds, which are dim with the dust
of antiquity ; nothing but the last counsel of his wisdom has
been rescued by tradition. For when he was in the last grip
of death he took thought for his sons Fkode and Hakald,
and bade them have royal sway, one over the land and the
other over the sea, and receive these several powers, not in
prolonged possession, but in yearly rotation. Thus their share
in the rule was made equal ; but Frode, who was the first to
have control of the affairs of the sea, earned disgrace from
his continual defeats in roving. His calamity was due to his
sailors being newly married, and preferring nuptial joys at
home to the toils of foreign warfare. After a time Harald,
the younger son, received the rule of the sea, and chose
soldiers who were unmarried, fearing to be baffled like his
brother. Fortune favoured his choice ; for he was as glorious
a rover as his brother was inglorious ; and this earned him his
brother's hatred. Moreover, their queens, Signe and Ulfhild,
one of whom was the daughter of Siward, King2 of Sweden,
the other of Karl, the governor of Gothland, were continually
wrangling as to which was the nobler, and broke up the
mutual fellowship of their husbands. Hence Harald and

1 Historians of old] perita rerum antiquitas : probably referring to the
makers of the kings' genealogies. — M.

2 King] rege : here begins Kall-Rasmussen's fragment (D), thus over-
lapping C to some extent. It lasts to "public sacrifice" (libamhtr
censeretur) on p. 265, but contains several gaps.

ROOK SEVEN. 261

Frode, when their common household was thus shattered,
divided up the goods they held in common, and gave more [217]
heed to the wrangling altercations of the women than to the
duties of brotherly affection.

Moreover, Frode, judging that his brother's glory was a
disgrace to himself and brought him into contempt, ordered one
of his household to put him to death secretly ; for he saw that
the man of whom he had the advantage in years was surpassing
him in courage. When the deed was done, he had the agent of
his treachery privily slain, lest the accomplice should betray the
crime. Then, in order to gain the credit of innocence and
escape the brand of crime, he ordered a full inquiry to be made
into the mischance that had cut off his brother so suddenly.
But he could not manage, by all his arts, to escape silent con-
demnation in the thoughts of the common people. He after-
wards asked Karl, " who had killed Harald?" and Karl replied
that it was deceitful in him to ask a question about some-
thing which he knew quite well. These words earned him his
death ; for Frode thought that he had reproached him covertly
with fratricide.

After this, the lives of Harald and Halfdan, the sons of
Harald by Signe the daughter of Karl, were attempted by
their uncle. But the guardians devised a cunning method
of saving their wards. For they cut off the claws of wolves
and tied them to the soles of their feet ; and then made
them run along many times so as to harrow up the mud
near their dwelling, as well as the ground (then covered with
snow), and give the appearance of an attack by wild beasts.
Then they killed the children of some bond-women, tore
their bodies into little pieces, and scattered their mangled
limbs all about. So when the youths were looked for in vain,
the scattered limbs were found, the tracks of the beasts were
pointed out, and the ground was seen besmeared with blood.
It was believed that the boys had been devoured by raven-
ing wolves ; and hardly anyone was suffered to doubt so plain
a proof that they were mangled. The belief in this spectacle
served to protect the wards. They were presently shut up by

262 SAXO CiRAMMATICUS.

their guardians in a hollow oak, so that no trace of their being-
alive should get abroad, and were fed for a long time under
pretence that they were dogs ; and were even called by hounds'
names, to prevent any belief getting abroad that they were
hiding.1

Frode alone refused to believe in their death ; and he went
and inquired of a woman skilled in divination where they
were hid. So potent were her spells, that she seemed able,
at any distance, to perceive anything, however intricately
locked away, and to summon it out to light. She declared
that one Ragnar had secretly undertaken to rear them, and
had called them by the names of dogs to cover the matter.
[218] When the young men found themselves dragged from their
hiding by the awful force of her spells, and brought before the
eyes of the enchantress, loth to be betrayed by this terrible
and imperious compulsion, they flung into her lap a shower of
gold which they had received from their guardians. When she
had taken the gift, she suddenly feigned death, and fell like
one lifeless. Her servants asked the reason why she fell so
suddenly ; and she declared that the refuge of the sons of
Harald was inscrutable ; for their wondrous might qualified
even the most awful effects of her spells. Thus she was con-
tent with a slight benefit, and could not bear to await a
greater reward at the king's hands. After this Ragnar, find-
ing that the belief concerning himself and his wards was
becoming rife in common talk, took them both away into
Funen. Here he was taken by Frode, and confessed that he
had put the young men in safe keeping ; and he prayed the
king to spare the wards whom he had made fatherless, and
not to think it a piece of good fortune to be guilty of two un-
natural murders. By this speech he changed the king's cruelty
into shame ; and he promised that if they attempted any plots
in their own land, he would give information to the king.
Thus he gained safety for his wards, and lived many years in
freedom from terror.

1 A parallel is the Lionel- Lancelot story of children saved by being
turned into dogs.

BOOK SEVEN. 263

When the boys grew up, they went to Zealand, and were
bidden by their friends to avenge their father. They vowed
that they and their uncle should not both live out the year.
When Ragnar found this out, he went by night to the palace,
prompted1 by the recollection of his covenant, and announced
that he was come privily to tell the king something he had
promised. But the king was asleep, and he would not suffer
them to wake him up, because Frode had been used to punish
any disturbance of his rest with the sword. So mighty a
matter was it thought of old to break the slumbers of a king
by untimely intrusion. Frode heard this from the sentries in
the morning ; and when he perceived that Ragnar had come to
tell him of the treachery- he gathered together his soldiers,
and resolved to forestall deceit by ruthless measures. Harald's
sons had no help for it but to feign madness. For when
they found themselves suddenly attacked, they began to be-
have like maniacs, as if they were distraught. And when
Frode thought that they were possessed, he gave up his
purpose, thinking it shameful to attack with the sword those
who seemed to be turning the sword against themselves. But
he was burned to death by them on the following night, and
was punished as befitted a fratricide. For they attacked the
palace, and first crushed the queen with a mass of stones ; and
then, having set fire to the house, they forced Frode to crawl
into a narrow cave that had been cut out long before, and into
the dark recesses of tunnels. Here he lurked in hiding and
perished, stifled by the reek and smoke.

After Frode was killed, Halfdan reigned over his country [219]
about three years, and then, handing over his sovereignty to
his brother Harald as deputy, went roving, and attacked and
ravaged Oland2 and the neighbouring isles, which are severed
from contact with Sweden by a winding sound. Here in the
winter he beached and entrenched his ships, and spent three
years on the expedition. After this he attacked Sweden, and
destroyed its king in the field. Afterwards he prepared to
meet the king's nephew Erik, the son of his own uncle Frode, in

1 Prompted] concitatus. Here C ends. - Oland] D has Hallandia,

264 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

battle: and when he heard that Erik's champion, Hakon, was
skilful in blunting swords with his spells, he fashioned, to use
for clubbing, a huge mace studded with iron knobs, as if he
would prevail by the strength of wood over the power of
sorcery. Then — for he was conspicuous beyond all others for
his bravery — amid the hottest charges of the enemy, he
covered his head with his helmet, and, without a shield,
poised his club, and with the help of both hands whirled
it against the bulwark of shields before him. No obstacle
was so stout but it was crushed to pieces by the blow of
the mass that smote it. Thus he overthrew the champion,
who ran against him in the battle, with a violent stroke
of his weapon. But he was conquered notwithstanding, and
tied away into Helsingland, where he went to one Witolf
(who had served of old with Harald), to seek tendance for his
wounds. This man had spent most of his life in camp ; but at
last, after the grievous end of his general, he had retreated into
this lonely district, where he lived the life of a peasant, and
rested from the pursuits of war. Often struck himself by the
missiles of the enemy, he had gained no slight skill in leech-
craft by constantly tending his own wounds. But if anyone
came with flatteries to seek his aid, instead of curing him he
was accustomed to give him something that would secretly
injure him, thinking it somewhat nobler to threaten than to
wheedle for benefits. When the soldiers of Erik menaced his
house, in their desire to take Half dan, he so robbed them of
the power of sight, that they could neither perceive the house,
nor trace it with certainty, though it was close to them. So
utterly had their eyesight been dulled by a delusive mist.

When Half dan had by this man's help regained his full
strength, he summoned Thore, a champion of notable capacity,
and proclaimed war against Erik. But when the forces were
led out on the other side, and he saw that Erik was superior in
numbers, he hid a part of his army, and instructed it to lie in
ambush among the bushes by the wayside, in order to destroy
the enemy by an ambuscade as he marched through the
[220] narrow part of the path. Erik Foresaw this, having recon-

ROOK SEVEN. 265

noitred his means of advancing, and thought he must with-
draw ; for fear, if he advanced along the track he had in-
tended, of being hard-pressed by the tricks of the enemy
among the steep windings of the hills. They therefore joined
battle, force against force, in a deep valley, inclosed all round
by lofty mountain ridges. Here Halfdan, when he saw the line
of his men wavering, climbed with Thore up a crag covered
with stones and, uprooting boulders, rolled them down upon
the enemy below ; and the weight of these as they fell crushed
the line that was drawn up in the lower position. Thus he
regained with stones the victory which he had lost with arms.
For this deed of prowess he received the name of Biargramm1 :
a word which seems to have been compounded from the name
of his fierceness and of the mountains. He soon gained so
much esteem for this among the Swedes, that he was thought
to be the son of the great Thor, and the people bestowed
divine honours upon him, and judged him worthy of public
libation.

But the souls of the conquered find it hard to rest, and
the insolence of the beaten ever struggles towards the for-
bidden thing. So it came to pass that Erik, in his desire to re-
pair the losses incurred in flight, attacked the districts subject
to Halfdan. Even Denmark he did not exempt from this
harsh treatment ; for he thought it a most worthy deed to
assail the country of the man who had caused him to be driven
from his own. And so, being more anxious to inflict injury
than to repel it, he set Sweden free from the arms of the
enemy. When Halfdan heard that his brother Harald had
been beaten by Erik in three battles, and slain in the fourth,
he was afraid of losing his empire ; he had to quit the land of
the Swedes and go back to his own country. Thus Erik
regained the kingdom of Sweden all the more quickly, that
he quitted it so lightly. Had fortune wished to favour
him in keeping his kingdom as much as she had in regaining-
it, she would in nowise have given him into the hand of

1 Biargramm] Biargrammiis. The name means " mountain- btrong" or
" rock-strong", from biarg and rammi. See Vigfiisson's Diet., s. v.

266 SAXO fJRAMMATICUS.

Halfdan. This capture was made in the following way.
When Halfdan had gone back into Sweden, he hid his fleet
craftily, and went to meet Erik with two vessels. Erik
attacked him with ten ; and Halfdan, sailing through sundry
winding channels, stole back to his concealed forces. Erik
pursued him too far, and the Danish fleet came out on the
sea. Thus Erik was surrounded ; but he rejected the life,
which was offered him under condition of thraldom. He
could not bear to think more of the light of day than liberty,
and chose to die rather than serve ; lest he should seem to love
life so well as to turn from a slave into a freeman ; and that
[221] he might not court with new-born obeisance the man whom
fortune had just before made only his equal. So little knows
virtue how to buy life with dishonour. Wherefore he was put
in chains, and banished to a place haunted by wild beasts ;
an end unworthy of that lofty spirit.

Halfdan had thus become sovereign of both kingdoms, and
graced his fame with a triple degree of honour. For he was
skilful and eloquent in composing poems in the fashion of
his country ; and he was no less notable as a valorous cham-
pion than as a powerful king. But when he heard that two
active rovers, Toke and Anund, were threatening the sur-
rounding districts, he attacked and routed them in a sea-fight.
For the ancients thought that nothing was more desirable than
glory which was gained, not by brilliancy of wealth, but by
address in arms. Accordingly, the most famous men of old
were so minded as to love seditions, to renew quarrels, to
loathe ease, to prefer fighting to peace, to be rated by their
valour and not by their wealth, to find their greatest delight in
battles, and their least in banquetings.

But Halfdan was not long to seek for a rival. A certain
Siwald, of most illustrious birth, related with lamentation in
the assembly of the Swedes the death of Frode and his queen;
and inspired in almost all of them such a hatred of Halfdan,
that the vote of the majority granted him permission to re-
volt. Nor was he content with the mere goodwill of their
voices, but so won the heart of the commons by his crafty

BOOK SEVEN. '2C)7

canvassing, that he induced almost all of thorn to set with
their hands the royal emblem on his head. Siwald had
seven sons, who were such clever sorcerers that often, in-
spired with the force of sudden frenzy, they would roar
savagely, bite their shields, swallow hot coals, and go through
any fire that could be piled up ; and their frantic passion
could only be checked by the rigour of chains, or pro-
pitiated by slaughter of men. With such a frenzy did their
own sanguinary temper, or else the fury of demons, inspire
them. When Halfdan heard of these things while busy
roving, he said it was right that his soldiers, who had hitherto
spent their rage upon foreigners, should now smite with the
steel the flesh of their own countrymen, and that they who
had been used to labour to extend their realm should now
avenge its wrongful seizure. On Halfdan approaching, Siwald
sent him ambassadors and requested him, if he was as great
in act as in renown, to meet himself and his sons in single
combat, and save the general peril by his own. When the [222]
other answered, that a combat could not lawfully be fought
by more than two men, Siwald said, that it was no wonder
that a childless bachelor should refuse the proffered conflict,
since his nature was void of heat, and had struck a disgraceful
frost into his soul and body. Children, he added, were not
different from the man who begot them, since they drew from
him their common principle of birth. Thus he and his sons
were to be accounted as one person, for nature seemed in a
manner to have bestowed on them a single body. Halfdan,
stung with this shameful affront, accepted the challenge ;
meaning to wipe out with noble deeds of valour such an
insulting taunt upon his celibacy. And while he chanced
to be walking through a shady woodland, he plucked up by the
roots an oak that stuck in his path, and, by simply stripping
it of its branches, made it look like a stout club. Having
this trusty weapon, he composed a short song as follows :

" Behold ! the rough burden which I bear with straining
crest, shall unto crests bring wounds and destruction. Never
shall any weapon of leafy wood crush the Goths with

268 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

direr augury. It shall shatter the towering strength of the
knotty neck, and shall bruise the hollow temples with the
mass of timber. The club which shall quell the wild madness
of the land shall be no less fatal to the Swedes. Breaking
bones, and brandished about the mangled limbs of warriors,
the stock I have wrenched off shall crush the backs of the
wicked, crush the hearths of our kindred, shed the blood
of our countryman, and be a destructive pest upon our
land."

When he had said this, he attacked Siwald and his seven
sons, and destroyed them, their force and bravery being use-
less against the enormous mass of his club.

At this time one Hardbeen, who came from Helsingland,
gloried in kidnapping and ravishing princesses, and used to
kill any man who hindered him in his lusts. He preferred
high matches to those that were lowly ; and the more illus-
trious the victims he could violate, the more noble he thought
himself. No man escaped unpunished who durst measure
himself with Hardbeen in valour. He was so huge, that his
[223] stature reached the measure of nine ells. He had twelve
champions dwelling with him, whose business it was to rise up
and to restrain his fury with the aid of bonds, whenever the
rage came on him that foreboded of battle. These men asked
Halfdan to attack Hardbeen and his champions man by man ;
and he not only promised to fight, but assured himself the
victory with most confident words. When Hardbeen heard
this, a demoniacal frenzy suddenly took him ; he furiously bit
and devoured the edges of his shield ; he kept gulping down
fiery coals ; he snatched live embers in his mouth and let them
pass down into his entrails ; he rushed through the perils of
crackling fires ; and at last, when he had raved through every
sort of madness, he turned his sword with rao-ino- hand
against the hearts of six of his champions. It is doubtful
whether this madness came from thirst for battle or natural
ferocity. Then with the remaining band of his champions
he attacked Halfdan, who crushed him with a hammer of
wondrous size, so that he lost both victory and life : paying

BOOK SEVEN. 260

the penalty both to Halfdan, whom he had challenged, and
to the kings whose offspring he had violently ravished.

But fortune never seemed satisfied with trying Halfdan's
strength, and used to offer him unexpected occasions for right-
ing. It so happened that Egther, a Finlander, was harrying
the Swedes on a roving raid. Halfdan, having found that he
had three ships, attacked him with the same number. Night
closed the battle, so that he could not conquer him ; but he
challenged Egther next day, fought with and overthrew him.
He next heard that Grim, a champion of immense strength,
was suing, under threats of a duel, for Thorhild, the daughter
of the chief Hather, and that her father had proclaimed that
he who put the champion out of the way should have her.
Halfdan, though he had reached old age a bachelor, was
stirred by the promise of the chief as much as by the insolence
of the champion, and went to Norway. When he entered it, he
blotted out every mark by which he could be recognised, dis-
guising his face with splashes of dirt ; and when he came to
the spot of the battle, drew his sword first. And when he knew
that it had been blunted by the glance of the enemy, he cast it
on the ground, drew another one from the sheath, with which he
attacked Grim, cutting through the meshes on the edge of
his cuirass, as well as the lower part of his shield. Grim
wondered at the deed, and said, " I cannot remember an old
man who fought more keenly" ; and, instantly drawing his
sword, he pierced through and shattered the target that was
opposed to his blade. But as his right arm tarried on the
stroke, Halfdan, without wavering, met and smote it swiftly
with his sword. The other, notwithstanding, clasped his [224]
sword with his left hand, and cut through the thigh of the
striker, revenging the mangling of his own body with a slight
wound. Halfdan, now conqueror, allowed the conquered man
to ransom the remnant of his life with a sum of money ; he
would not be thought shamefully to rob a maimed man, who
could not fight, of the pitiful remainder of his days. By this
deed he showed himself almost as great in saving as in con-
quering his enemy. As a prize for this victory he won

•270 SAXo (iHA.MMATK'l s.

Thorhild in marriage, and had bv her a son Asmund ; from
whom the kings of Norway treasure the honour of being-
descended ; retracing the regular succession of their line
down from Halfdan.

After this, Ebbe, a rover of common birth, was so confident
of his valour, that he was moved to aspire to a splendid
marriage. He was a suitor for Sigrid, the daughter of
Yngwin, King of the Goths, and moreover demanded half the
Gothic kingdom for her dowry. Halfdan was consulted
whether the match should be entertained, and advised that a
feigned consent should be given, promising that he would
baulk the marriage. He also gave instructions that a seat
should be allotted to himself among the places of the guests at
table. Yngwin approved the advice ; and Halfdan, utterly
defacing the dignity of his royal presence with an unsightly
and alien disguise, and coming by night on the wedding feast,
alarmed those who met him ; for they marvelled at the coming
of a man of such superhuman stature. As soon as he entered
the palace, he looked round on them all, and asked, who was he
that had taken the place next to the king ? Upon Ebbe reply-
ing that the future son-in-law of the king was next to his
side, Halfdan asked him, in the most passionate language,
what madness, or what demons, had brought him to such
wantonness, as to make bold to unite his contemptible and
filthy race with a splendid and illustrious line, or to dare to
lay his peasant finger upon the royal family : and, not content
even with such a claim, to aspire, as it seemed, to a share
even in the kingdom of another. Then he bade Ebbe fight him,
saying that he must get the victory before he got his wish.
The other answered that the night was the time to fight for
monsters, but the day the time for men : but Halfdan, to
prevent him shirking the battle by pleading the hour, de-
clared that the moon was shining with the brightness of day-
light. Thus he forced Ebbe to fight, and felled him, turning
the banquet into a spectacle, and the wedding into a funeral.
Some years passed, and he went back into his own country,
Where, being childless, he bequeathed the royal wealth by will

HOOK SKY FA". 271

to Sngwin, and appointed him king. Yngwin was afterwards

overthrown in war by a rival named Ragnald, and lie left a
son Siwald.

Siwald's daughter, Sigrid, was of such excellent modesty, [225]
that though a great concourse of suitors wooed her for her
beauty, it seemed as if she could not be brought to look at one
of them. Confident in this power of self-restraint, she asked
her father for a husband who by the sweetness of his blandish-
ments should be able to get a look back from her. For in old
time among us the self-restraint of the maidens was a great
subduer of wanton looks, lest the soundness of the soul should
be infected by the licence of the eyes ; and women desired to
avouch the purity of their hearts by the modesty of their faces.
Then one Ottar, the son of Ebb, kindled with confidence in
the greatness either of his own achievements, or of his courtesy
and eloquent address, stubbornly and ardently desired to woo
the maiden. And though he strove with all the force of his
wit to soften her gaze, no device whatever could move her
downcast eyes ; and, marvelling at her persistence in her in-
domitable rigour, he departed. A giant desired the same
thing, but, finding himself equally foiled, he suborned a woman ;
and she, pretending friendship for the girl, served her for a
while as her handmaid, and at last enticed her far from her
father's house, by cunningly going out of the way ; then
the giant rushed upon her and bore her oft' into the closest
fastnesses of a ledge on the mountain. Others think that he
disguised himself as a woman, treacherously continued his
devices so as to draw the girl away from her own house,
and in the end carried her off. When Ottar heard of this,
he ransacked the recesses of the mountain in search of the
maiden, found her, slew the giant, and bore her off. But the
assiduous giant had bound back the locks of the maiden,
tightly twisting her hair in such a way that the matted mass
of tresses was held in a kind of curled bundle ; nor was it easy
for anyone to unravel their plaited tangle, without using the
steel. Again he tried with divers allurements to provoke the
maiden to look at him ; and when he had long laid vain siege

272 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

to her listless eyes, he abandoned his quest, since his purpose
turned out so little to his liking. But he could not bring
himself to violate the girl, loth to defile with ignoble inter-
course one of illustrious birth. She then wandered long, and
sped through divers desert and circuitous paths, and happened
to come to the hut of a certain huge woman of the woods, who
set her to the task of pasturing her goats. Again Ottar
granted her his aid to set her free, and again he tried to move
her, addressing her in this fashion :
[226] " Wouldst thou rather hearken to my counsels, and embrace
me even as I desire, than be here and tend the flock of rank
goats ?

" Spurn the hand of thy wicked mistress, and flee hastily
from thy cruel taskmistress, that thou mayst go back with me
to the ships of thy friends and live in freedom.

" Quit the care of the sheep entrusted to thee ; scorn to
drive the steps of the goats ; share my bed, and fitly reward
my prayers.

" 0 thou whom I have sought with such pains, turn again
thy listless beams ; for a little while — it is an easy gesture —
lift thy modest face.

" I will take thee hence, and set thee by the house of thy
father, and unite thee joyfully with thy loving mother, if but
once thou wilt show me thine eyes stirred with soft desires.

" Thou, whom I have borne so oft from the prisons of the
giants, pay thou some due favour to my toil of old ; pity my
hard endeavours, and be stern no more.

" For why art thou become so distraught and brainsick,
that thou wilt choose to tend the flock of another, and be
counted among the servants of monsters, sooner than encour-
age our marriage-troth with fitting and equal consent ?"1

But she, that she might not suffer the constancy of her
chaste mind to falter by looking at the world without,
restrained her gaze, keeping her lids immovably rigid. How
modest, then, must we think, were the women of that age,
when, under the strongest provocations of their lovers, they
1 For why . . . equal consent] This sentence is in prose in the original.

BOOK SEVEN. 273

could not be brought to make the slightest motion of their
eyes ! So when Ottar found that even by the merits of his
double service he could not stir the maiden's gaze towards him,
he went back to the fleet, wearied out with shame and
chagrin. Sigrid, in her old fashion, ran far away over the [227]
rocks, and chanced to stray in her wanderings to the abode
of Ebb ; where, ashamed of her nakedness and distress, she
pretended to be a daughter of paupers. The mother of Ottar
saw that this woman, though bestained and faded, and covered
with a meagre cloak, was the scion of some noble stock ; and
took her, and with honourable courtesy kept her by her side
in a distinguished seat. For the beauty of the maiden was a
sign that betrayed her birth, and her tell-tale features echoed
her lineage. Ottar saw her, and asked why she hid her face
in her robe. Also, in order to test her mind more surely, he
feigned that a woman was about to become his wife, and, as he
went up into the bride-bed, gave Sigrid the torch to hold. The
lights had almost burnt down, and she was hard put to it by
the flame coming closer ; but she showed such an example of
endurance, that she was seen to hold her hand motionless, and
might have been thought to feel no annoyance from the heat.
For the fire within mastered the fire without, and the glow of
her longing soul deadened the burn of her scorched skin. At
last Ottar bade her look to her hand. Then, modestly lifting
her eyes, she turned her calm gaze upon him ; and straight-
way, the pretended marriage being put away, went up unto
the bride-bed to be his wife. Siwald afterwards seized
Ottar, and thought that he ought to be hanged for defiling his
daughter. But Sigrid at once explained how she had happened
to be carried away, and not only brought Ottar back into the
king's favour, but also induced her father himself to marry
Ottar 's sister.

After this a battle was fought between Siwald and Ragnald
in Zealand, warriors of picked valour being chosen on both
sides. For three days they slaughtered one another ; but
so great was the bravery of both sides, that it was doubtful
how the victory would go. Then Ottar, whether seized with

2574 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

weariness at the prolonged battle, or with desire of glory,
broke, despising death, through the thickest of the foe, cut
down Ragnald among the bravest of his soldiers, and won the
Danes a sudden victory. This battle was notable for the
cowardice of the greatest nobles. For the whole mass fell
into such a panic, that forty of the bravest of the Swedes are
said to have turned and fled. The chief of these, Starkad,
had been used to tremble at no fortune, however cruel, and no
danger, however great. But some strange terror stole upon
him, and he chose to follow the flight of his friends rather
than to despise it. I should think that he was filled with this
alarm by the power of heaven, that he might not think him-
[228] self courageous beyond the measure of human valour. Thus
the prosperity of mankind is wont ever to be incomplete.
Then all these warriors embraced the service of King Hakon,
the mightiest of the rovers, like remnants of the war drifting
to him.

[Concerning King Sigar, whence the town Syersted took its
name.1]

After this Siwald was succeeded by his son Sigar, who had
sons Siwald, Alf, and Alger, and a daughter Signe. Alf
excelled the rest in spirit and beauty, and devoted himself to
the business of a rover. Such a grace was shed on his hair,
which had a wonderful dazzling glow, that his locks seemed
to shine silvery. At the same time Si ward, the king of the
Goths, is said to have had two sons, Wemund and Osten,
and a daughter Alfhild, who showed almost from her cradle
such faithfulness to modesty, that she continually kept her face
muffled in her robe, lest she should cause her beauty to pro-
voke the passion of another. Her father banished her into
very close keeping, and gave her a viper and a snake to rear,
wishing to defend her chastity by the protection of these
reptiles when they came to grow up. For it would have been
hard to pry into her chamber when it was barred by so
dangerous a bolt. He also enacted that if any man tried to
enter it, and failed, he must straightway yield his head to be
1 This sentence in the ed. pr. is evidently a gloss.

BOOK SEVEN. 27 S

taken off and impaled on a stake. The terror which was
thus attached to wantonness chastened the heated spirits of
the young men. Then Alf, the son of Sigar, thinking that
the peril of the attempt only made it the nobler, declared
himself a wooer, and was told to subdue the beasts that kept
watch beside the room of the maiden ; inasmuch as, according
to the decree, the embraces of the maiden were the prize of
their subduer. Alf covered his body with a blood-stained hide
in order to make them more frantic against him. Girt with
this, as soon as he had entered the doors of the enclosure, he
took a piece of red-hot steel in the tongs, and plunged it into
the yawning throat of the viper, which he laid dead. Then
he flung his spear full into the gaping mouth of the snake as
it wound and writhed forward, and destroyed it. And when
he demanded the gage which was attached to victory by the
terms of the covenant, Siward answered that he would accept
that man only for his daughter's husband of whom she
made a free and decided choice. None but the girl's
mother was stiff against the wooer's suit ; and she privately
spoke to her daughter in order to search her mind. The
daughter warmly praised her suitor for his valour ; whereon
the mother upbraided her sharply, that her chastity should
be unstrung, and she captivated by charming looks ; and
because, forgetting to judge his virtue, she cast the gaze of a [229]
wanton mind upon the flattering lures of beauty. Thus Alf-
hild was led to despise the young Dane ; whereupon she
exchanged woman's for man's attire, and, no longer the most
modest of maidens, began the life of a warlike rover. Having
also enrolled in her service many maidens who were of the
same mind, she happened to come to a spot where a band
of rovers were lamenting the death of their captain, who had
been lost in war ; they made her their rover-captain for her
beauty, and she did deeds beyond the valour of woman.
Alf made many toilsome voyages in pursuit of her, and in
winter happened to come on a fleet of the Blackmen. The
waters were at this time frozen hard, and the ships were
caught in such a mass of ice, that they could not get on by

T 2

276 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the most violent rowing. But the continued frost promised
the prisoners a safer way of advance ; and Alf ordered his
men to try the frozen surface of the sea in their brogues,
after they had taken off their slippery shoes, so that they
could run over the level ice more steadily. The Black-
men supposed that they were taking to flight with all the
nimbleness of their heels, and began to fight them ; but their
steps tottered exceedingly and they gave back, the slippery
surface under their soles making their footing uncertain. But
the Danes crossed the frozen sea with safer steps, and foiled
the feeble advance of the enemy, whom they conquered,
and then turned and sailed to Finland. Here they chanced
to enter a rather narrow gulf, and, on sending a few men
to reconnoitre, they learnt that the harbour was being
held by a few ships. For Alfhild had gone before them
with her fleet into the same narrows. And when she saw
the strange ships afar off, she rowed in swift haste forward
to encounter them, thinking it better to attack the foe than
to await them. Alf's men were against his attacking so
many ships with so few ; but he replied that it would be
shameful if anyone should report to Alfhild that his desire
to advance could be checked by a few ships in the path ;
for he said that their record of honours ought not to be
tarnished by such a trifle. The Danes wondered not a
little whence their enemies got such grace of bodily beauty
and such supple limbs. So, when they began the sea-fight, the
young man Alf leapt on Alfhild's prow, and advanced towards
the stern, slaughtering all that withstood him. His comrade
Borgar struck off Alfhild's helmet, and, seeing the smoothness
of her chin, saw that he must fight with kisses and not with
[230] arms ; that the cruel spears must be put away, and the enemy
handled with gentler dealings. So Alf rejoiced that the
woman whom he had sought over land and sea in the face
of so many dangers was now beyond all expectation in his
power ; whereupon he took hold of her eagerly, and made her
change her man's apparel for a woman's ; and afterwards
begot on her a daughter, Gurid. Also Borgar wedded the

HOOK SEVEN. 277

attendant of Alfhild, Groa, and bad by ber a son, Harald, to
whom tbe following age gave the surname Hyldetand.

And that no one may wonder that this sex laboured at
warfare, I will make a brief digression, in order to give a
short account of the estate and character of such women.
There were once women among the Danes who dressed them-
selves to look like men, and devoted almost every instant of
their lives to the pursuit of war, that they might not suffer
their valour to be unstrung or dulled by the infection of
luxury. For they abhorred all dainty living, and used to
harden their minds and bodies with toil and endurance.
They put away all the softness and lightmindedness of
women, and inured their womanish spirit to masculine ruth-
lessness. They sought, moreover, so zealously to be skilled in
warfare, that they might have been thought to have unsexed
themselves. Those especially, who had either force of character
or tall and comely persons, used to enter on this kind of life.
These women, therefore (just as if they had forgotten their
natural estate, and preferred sternness to soft words), offered
war rather than kisses, and would rather taste blood than
busses, and went about the business of arms more than
that of amours. They devoted those hands to the lance
which they should rather have applied to the loom. They
assailed men with their spears whom they could have
melted with their looks, they thought of death and not of
dalliance. Now I will cease to wander, and will go back to
my theme.

In the early spring, Alf and Alger, who had gone back to
sea-roving, were exploring the sea in various directions, when
they lighted with a hundred ships upon Helwin, Hagbard, and
Hamund, sons of the kinglet Hamund. These they attacked
and only the twilight stayed their blood-wearied hands ; and
in the night the soldiers were ordered to keep truce. On
the morrow this was ratified for good by a mutual oath ; for
such loss had been suffered on both sides in the battle of
the day before that they had no force left to fight again. Thus,
exhausted by equality of valour, they were driven perforce

278 SAXO GRAMMATIOUS.

to make peace. About the same time Hildigisl, a Teuton of
noble birth, relying on his looks and his rank, sued for Signe,
[231] the daughter of Sigar. But she scorned him, chiefly for his
insignificance, inasmuch as he was not brave, but wished to
adorn his fortunes with the courage of other people. But
this woman was inclined to love Hakon, chiefly for the
high renown of his great deeds. For she thought more of
the brave than the feeble ; she admired notable deeds more
than looks, knowing that every allurement of beauty is
mere dross when reckoned against simple valour, and can-
not weigh equal with it in the balance. For there are maids
that are more charmed by the fame than by the face of their
lovers ; who go not by the looks, but by the mind, and whom
naught but regard for a man's spirit can kindle to pledge
their own troth. Now Hagbard, going to Denmark with the
sons of Sigar, gained speech of their sister without their know-
ledge, and in the end induced her to pledge her word to him
that she would secretly become his mistress. Afterwards,
when the waiting-women happened to be comparing the
honourable deeds of the nobles, she preferred Hakon to
Hildigisl, declaring that the latter had nothing to praise
but his looks, while in the case of the other a wrinkled
visage was outweighed by a choice spirit. Not content
with this plain kind of praise, she is said to have sung as
follows :

" This man lacks fairness, but shines with foremost courage,
measuring his features by his force.

" For the lofty soul redeems the shortcoming of harsh
looks, and conquers the body's blemish.

" His look flashes with spirit, his face, notable in its very
harshness, delights in fierceness.

" He who strictly judges character praises not the mind for
the fair hue, but rather the complexion for the mind.

1 This man is not prized for beauty, but for brave daring
and war-won honour,

" While the other is commended by his comely head and
radiant countenance and crest of lustrous locks,

BOOK SEVEN. 279

" Vile is the empty grace of beauty, self-confounded the
deceptive pride of comeliness.

" Valour and looks are swayed by different inclinations :
one lasts on, the other perishes.

" Empty red and white brings in vice, and is frittered away
little by little by the lightly gliding years ;

" But courage plants firmer the hearts devoted to it, and
does not slip and straightway fall.

"The voice of the multitude is beguiled by outward good, [232]
and forsakes the rule of right ;

" But I praise virtue at a higher rate, and scorn the grace
of comeliness."

This utterance fell on the ears of the bystanders in such
a way, that they thought she praised Hagbard under the
name of Hakon. And Hildigisl, vexed that she preferred
Hagbard to himself, bribed a certain blind man, Bolwis, to
bring the sons of Sigar and the sons of Hamund to turn their
friendship into hatred. For King Sigar had been used to
transact almost all affairs by the advice of two old men, one
of whom was Bolwis. The temper of these two men was so
different, that one used to reconcile folk who were at feud,
while the other loved to sunder in hatred those who were
bound by friendship, and by estranging folk to fan pestilent
quarrels.

So Bolwis began by reviling the sons of Hamund to the
sons of Sigar, in lying slanders, declaring that they never
used to preserve the bonds of fellowship loyally, and that
they must be restrained by war rather than by league. Thus
the alliance of the young men was broken through ; and
while Hagbard was far away, the sons of Sigar, Alf and
Alger, made an attack, and Helwin and Hamund were de-
stroyed by the harbour which is called Hamund's Bay. Hag-
bard then came up with fresh forces to avenge his brothers, and
destroyed them in battle. Hildigisl1 slunk off with a spear
through both buttocks, which was the occasion for a jeer at

1 Cf. Nial's Saga, where Skapti is shot through both calves at the battle
at the Moot- stead and disgraced.

280 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the Teutons, since the ugliness of the blow did not fail to
brand it with disgrace.

Afterwards Hagbard dressed himself in woman's attire,
and, as though he had not wronged Sigar's daughter by slaj7ing
her brothers, went back to her alone, trusting in the promise
he had from her, and feeling more safe in her loyalty than
alarmed by reason of his own misdeed. Thus does lust
despise peril. And, not to lack a pretext for his journey, he
gave himself out as a fighting-maid of Hakon, saying that
he took an embassy from him to Sigar. And when he was
taken to bed at night among the handmaids, and the women
who washed his feet were wiping them, they asked him why
he had such hairy legs, and why his hands were not at all
soft to touch, he answered :
[233] "What wonder that the soft hollow of my foot should
harden, and that long hairs should stay on my shaggy leg,
when the sand has so often smitten my soles beneath, and the
briars have caught me in mid- step ?

" Now I scour the forest with leaping, now the waters
with running. Now the sea, now the earth, now the wave is
my path.

" Nor could my breast, shut in bonds of steel, and wont to
be beaten with lance and missile, ever have been soft to the
touch, as with you who are covered by the mantle or the
smooth gown.

" Not the distaff or the wool-frails, but spears dripping
from the slaughter, have served for our handling."

Signe did not hesitate to back up his words with like
dissembling, and replied that it was natural that hands which
dealt more in wounds than wools, and in battle than in tasks
of the house, should show the hardness that befitted their
service ; and that, unenf eebled with the pliable softness of
women, they should not feel smooth to the touch of others.
For they were hardened partly by the toils of war, partly by
the habit of seafaring. For, said she, the warlike handmaid
of Hakon did not deal in woman's business, but had been
wont to bring her right hand blood-stained with hurling

BOOK SEVEN. 281

spears and flinging missiles. It was no wonder, therefore, it'
her soles were hardened by the immense journeys she had
gone ; and that, when the shores she had scoured so often had
bruised them with their rough and broken shingle, they
should toughen in a horny stiffness, and should not feel soft
to the touch like theirs, whose steps never strayed, but who
were for ever cooped within the confines of the palace.
Hagbard received her as his bedfellow, under plea that he
was to have the couch of honour ; and, amid their converse
of mutual delight, he addressed her slowly in such words as
these :

" If thy father takes me and gives me to bitter death, wilt
thou ever, when I am dead, forget so strong a troth, and
again seek the marriage-plight 1

" For if the chance should fall that way, I can hope for no
room for pardon; nor will the father who is to avenge his [234]
sons spare or have pity.

" For I stripped thy brothers of their power on the sea and
slew them ; and now, unknown to thy father, as though I
had done naught before counter to his will, I hold thee in
the couch we share.

" Say, then, my one love, what manner of wish wilt thou
show when thou lackest the accustomed embrace ?"

Signe answered :

" Trust me, dear ; I wish to die with thee, if fate brings thy
turn to perish first, and not to prolong my span of life at all,
when once dismal death has cast thee to the tomb.

" For if thou chance to close thy eyes for ever, a victim to
the maddened attack of the men-at-arms; — by whatsoever
doom thy breath be cut off', by sword or disease, by sea or soil,
I forswear every wanton and corrupt flame, and vow myself
to a death like thine ; that they who were bound by one
marriage- union may be embraced in one and the same
punishment. Nor will I quit this man, though I am to feel
the pains of death ; I have resolved he is worthy of my
love who gathered the first kisses of my mouth, and had
the first fruits of my delicate youth. I think that no vow

282 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

will be surer than this, if speech of woman have any loyalty
at all."

This speech so quickened the spirit of Hagbard, that he
found more pleasure in her promise than peril in his own
going away.1 The serving-women betrayed him ; and, when
Sigar's men-at-arms attacked him, he defended himself long
and stubbornly, and slew many of them in the doorway. But
at last he was taken, and brought before the assembly, and
found the voices of the people divided over him. For very
many said that he should be punished for so great an offence ;
[235] but Bilwis, the brother of Bolwis, and others, conceived a
better judgment, and advised that it would be better to use
his stout service than to deal with him too ruthlessly. Then
Bolwis came forward and declared that it was evil advice
which urged the king to pardon when he ought to take
vengeance, and to soften with unworthy compassion his
righteous impulse to anger. For how could Sigar, in the case
of this man, feel any desire to spare or pity him, when he had
not only robbed him of the double comfort of his sons, but
had also bestained him with the insult of deflowering his daugh-
ter ? The greater part of the assembly voted for this opinion ;
Hagbard was condemned, and a gallows-tree planted to re-
ceive him. Hence it came about that he who at first had
hardly one sinister voice against him was punished with
general harshness. Soon after the queen handed him a cup,
and, bidding him assuage his thirst, vexed him with threats
after this manner :

" Now, insolent Hagbard, whom the whole assembly has
pronounced worthy of death, now to quench thy thirst thou
shalt give thy lips liquor to drink in a cup of horn.

" Wherefore cast away fear, and, at this last hour of thy
life, taste with bold lips the deadly goblet ;

" That, having drunk it, thou mayst presently land by the
• 1 wellings of those below, passing into the sequestered palace of
stern Dis, giving thy body to the gibbet and thy spirit to Orcus."

1 Going away] digressione ; i.e., in the morning. St. interpreted
"death".

BOOK SEVEN. 283

Then the young man took the cup offered him, and is said
to have made answer as follows :

" With this hand, wherewith I cut off thy twin sons, I will
take my last taste, yea the draught of the last drink.

w Now not unavenged shall I go to the Elysian regions, not
unchastising to the stern ghosts. For these men have first
been shut in the dens of Tartarus by a slaughter wrought [236]
by my endeavours. This right hand was wet with blood
that was yours ; this hand robbed thy children of the years
of their youth, children whom thy womb brought to light ;
but the deadly sword spared it not then. Infamous woman,
raving in spirit, hapless, childless mother, no years shall
restore to thee the lost, no time and no day whatsoever shall
save thy child from the starkness of death, or redeem him !"

Thus he avenged the queen's threats of death by taunting
her with the youths whom he had slain ; and, flinging back
the cup at her, drenched her face with the sprinkled wine.

Meantime Signe asked her weeping women whether they
could endure to bear her company in the things which she
purposed. They promised that they would carry out and
perform themselves whatsoever their mistress should come to
wish, and their promise was loyally kept. Then, drowned
in tears, she said that she wished to follow in death the only
partner of her bed that she had ever had ; and ordered
that, as soon as the signal had been given from a place of
watch, torches should be put to the room, then that halters
should be made out of their robes ; and to these they should
proffer their throats to be strangled, thrusting away the
support to the feet. They agreed ; and that they might
blench the less at death, she gave them a draught of wine.
After this Haofbard was led to the hill, which afterwards took
its name from him, to be hanged. Then, to test the loyalty
of his true love, he told the executioners to hang up his
mantle, saying that it would be a pleasure to him if he could
see the likeness of his approaching death rehearsed in some
way. The request was granted ; and the watcher on the out-
look, thinking that the thing was being done to Hagbard,

284 SAXO GRAMMATTOUS.

reported what she saw to the maidens who were shut within
the palace. They quickly fired the house, and, thrusting away
the wooden supports under their feet, gave their necks to the
noose to be writhen. So Hagbard, when he saw the palace
wrapped in fire, and the familiar chamber blazing, said that
he felt more joy from the loyalty of his mistress than sorrow
at his approaching death. He also charged the bystanders to
do him to death, witnessing how little he made of his doom
by a song like this :

" Swiftly, O warriors ! let me be caught and lifted into the
air. Sweet, O my bride ! is it for me to die when thou hast
gone.
[237] " I perceive the crackling and the house rudely with flames ;
and the love, long-promised, declares our troth.

" Behold, thy covenant is fulfilled with no doubtful vows,
since thou sharest my life and my destruction.

" We shall have one end, one bond after our troth, and
somewhere our first love will live on.

" Happy am I, that have deserved to have joy of such a
consort, and not to go basely alone to the gods of Tartarus !

" Then let the knot gripe the midst of the throat ; nought
but pleasure the last doom shall bring,

" Since there remains a sure hope of the renewal of love.
and a death which will soon have joys of its own.

" Either country is sweet ; in both worlds shall be held in
honour the repose of our souls together, our equal troth in
love,

" For, see now, I welcome the doom before me ; since not
even among the shades does very love suffer the embrace of
its partner to perish."1 And as he spoke the executioners
strangled him. And, that none may think that all traces of
antiquity have utterly disappeared, a proof of the aforesaid
event is afforded by local marks yet existing ; for the killing
of Hagbard gave his name to the stead ; and not far from the
town of Sigar there is a place to be seen, where a mound a
little above the level, with the appearance of a swelling in

' For, see now, .... perishj This sentence is in prose in the original.

BOOK SEVEN. 285

the ground, looks like an ancient homestead.1 Moreover, a
man told Absalon that he had seen a beam found in the
spot, which a countryman struck with his ploughshare as he
burrowed into the clods.

Hakon, the son of Hamund, heard of this ; but when he
was seen to be on the point of turning his arms from the
Irish against the Danes in order to avenge his brother, Hakon
the Zealander, the son of Wigar, and Starkad deserted him.
They had been his allies from the death of Ragnald up to that
hour : one, because he was moved by regard for friendship,
the other by regard for his birth ; so that different reasons
made both desire the same thing. Now patriotism diverted
Hakon [of Zealand] from attacking his country; for it was
apparent that he was going to fight his own people, while all the
rest warred with foreigners. But Starkad forbore to become
the foe of the aged Sigar, whose hospitality he had enjoyed,
lest he should be thought to wrong one who deserved well of
him. For some men pay such respect to hospitality, that, if
they can remember ever to have experienced kindly offices from
folk, they cannot be brought to inflict any annoyance on [238]
them. But Hakon thought the death of his brother a worse
loss than the defection of his champions; and, gathering his fleet
into the haven called Her wig in Danish, and in Latin
Hosts' Bight,2 he drew up his men, and posted his line of foot-
soldiers in the spot where the town built by Esbern now
defends with its fortifications those who dwell hard by, and
repels the approach of barbarous savages. Then he divided
his forces in three, and sent on two- thirds of his ships,
appointing a few men to row to the river Susa. This force
was to advance on a dangerous voyage along its winding
reaches, and to help those on foot if necessary. He marched
in person by land with the remainder, advancing chiefly over
wooded country to escape notice. Part of this path, which
was once closed up with thick woods, is now land ready for

1 M. says that a hill called after Hagbard remains ; and that there is a
Sigersbed in Alsted, near a hill called Galgehor — Gallows-hill.

2 Hosts' Bight] Exercituum Sinus, translating the Danish word.

I^Sti SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the plough, and fringed with a scanty scrub. And, in order
that when they got out into the plain they might not lack the
shelter of trees, he told them to cut and carry branches.
Also, that nothing might burden their rapid march, he bade
them cast away some of their clothes, as well as their scab-
bards, and carry their swords naked. In memory of this
event he left the mountain and the ford a perpetual name.1
Thus by his night march he eluded two pickets of sentries ;
but when he came upon the third, a scout, observing the
marvellous event, went to the sleeping-room of Sigar, saying
that he brought news of a portentous thing ; for he saw
leaves and shrubs like men walking. Then the king asked
him how far off was the advancing forest ; and when he
heard that it was near, he added that this prodigy boded
his own death.2 Hence the marsh where the shrubs were
cut down was styled in common parlance Deadly Marsh.
Therefore, fearing the narrow passages, he left the town, and
went to a level spot which was more open, there to meet
the enemy in battle. Sigar fought unsuccessfully, and was
crushed and slain at the spot that is called in common
speech Walbrunna, but in Latin3 the Spring of Corpses or
Carnage. Then Hakon used his conquest to cruel purpose,
and followed up his good fortune so wickedly, that he lusted
for an indiscriminate massacre, and thought no forbearance
should be shown to rank or sex. Nor did he yield to any
regard for compassion or shame, but stained his sword in the
blood of women, and attacked mothers and children in one
general and ruthless slaughter.

Siwald, the son of Sigar, had thus far stayed under his

father's roof. But when he heard of this, he mustered an

army in order to have his vengeance. So Hakon, alarmed at

[239] the gathering of such numbers, went back with a third of his

1 Not traced.

2 Own death] " Saxo seems to imply a previous oracle given to Sigar
concerning the advancing wood." — (M.) Macbeth's similar experience,
taken by Shakespeare from Holinshed, is traceable to Hector Boece, Bk. xii.

3 In Latin] cadaverum vel stragis pvteus.

BOOK SEVEN. 287

army to his fleet at Herwig, and planned to depart by sea.
But his colleague Hakon, surnamed the Proud; thought that
he ought himself to feel more confidence at the late victory
than fear at the absence of Hakon ; and, preferring death to
flight, tried to defend the remainder of the army. So he
drew back his camp for a little, and for a long time waited
near the town of Axelsted,1 for the arrival of the fleet,
blaming his friends for their tardy coming. For the fleet
that had been sent into the river had not yet come to anchor
in the appointed harbour. Now the killing of Sigar and the
love of Siwald were stirring the temper of the people one
and all, so that both sexes devoted themselves to war, and
you would have thought that the battle did not lack the aid
of women. On the morrow Hakon and Siwald encountered,
and fought two whole days. The combat was most frightful ;
both generals fell ; and victory graced the remnants of the
Danes. But, in the night after the battle, the fleet, having
penetrated the Susa, reached the appointed haven. It was
once possible to row along this river ; but its bed is now
choked with solid substances, and is so narrowed by its
straits that few vessels can get in, being prevented by its
sluggishness and contractedness. At daybreak, when the
sailors saw the corpses of their friends, they heaped up, in
order to bury the general, a barrow of notable size, which is
famous to this day, and is commonly named Hakon's Howe.

But Borgar, with Skanian chivalry suddenly came up and
slaughtered a multitude of them. When the enemy were
destroyed, he manned their ships, which now lacked their
rowers, and hastily, with breathless speed, pursued the son of
Hamund. He encountered him, and ill-fortune befell Hakon,
who fled in hasty panic with three ships to the country of the
Scots, where, after two years had gone by, he died.

All these perilous wars and fortunes had so exhausted the
royal line among the Danes, that it was found to be reduced
to Gurid alone, the daughter of Alf, and granddaughter of
Sigar. And when the Danes saw themselves deprived of

1 Axelsted] identified by M. with Alsted in Zealand.

288 SAXO GRAMMATICrs.

their usual high-born sovereigns, they committed the king-
dom to men of the people, and appointed rulers out of the
commons, assigning to Ostmar the regency of Skaane, and that
of Zealand to Hunding ; on Hane they conferred the lordship
of Funen ; while in the hands of Rorik and Hather they put
the supreme power of Jutland, the authority being divided.
Therefore, that it may not be unknown from what father
sprang the succeeding line of kings, some matters come to
my mind which must be glanced at for a while in a needful
[24.0] digression. They say that Gunnar, the bravest of the Swedes,
was once at feud with Norway for the most weighty reasons,
and that he was granted liberty to attack it, but that he
turned this liberty into licence by the greatest perils, and
fell, in the first of the raids he planned, upon the district
of Jather,1 which he put partly to the sword and partly
to the names. Forbearing to plunder, he rejoiced only in
passing through the paths that were covered with corpses,
and the blood-stained ways. Other men used to abstain
from bloodshed, and love pillage more than slaughter ; but
he preferred bloodthirstiness to booty, and liked best to
wreak his deadly pleasure by slaughtering men. His cruelty
drove the islanders to forestall the impending danger by
a public submission. Moreover, Regnald, the King of the
Northmen, now in extreme age, when he heard how the
tyrant busied himself, had a cave made and shut up in it his
daughter Drott, giving her due attendance, and providing
her maintenance for a long time. Also he committed to the
cave some swords which had been adorned with the choicest
smithcraft, besides the royal household gear; so that he might
not leave the enemy to capture and use the sword, which he
saw that he could not wield himself. And, to prevent the cave
being noticed by its height, he levelled the hump down to
the firmer ground. Then he set out to war ; but, being
unable, with his aged limbs, to go down into battle, he leaned
on the shoulders of his escort and walked forth propped by
the steps of others. So he perished in the battle, where he

1 Jather] Jedder in Stavanger.

BOOK SEVEN. 289

fought with more ardour than success, and left his country a
sore matter for shame.

For Gunnar, in order to punish the cowardice of the con-
quered race by terms of extraordinary baseness, had a dog-
set over them as a governor. What can we suppose to have
been his object in this action, unless it were to make a haughty
nation feel that their arrogance was being more signally pun-
ished, when they bowed their stubborn heads before a yapping
hound ? To let no insult be lacking, he appointed governors to
look after public and private affairs in its name ; and he ap-
pointed separate ranks of nobles to keep continual and stead-
fast watch over it. He also enacted that if any one of the
courtiers thought it contemptible to do allegiance to their
chief, and omitted offering most respectful homage to its
various o-oinos and comino-s as it ran hither and thither, he
should be punished with the loss of his limbs. Also Gunnar
imposed on the nation a double tribute, one to be paid out
of the autumn harvest, the other in the spring. Thus he
burst the bubble conceit of the Norwegians, to make them
feel clearly how their pride was gone, when they saw it forced
to do homage to a dog.1

Now when he heard that the king's daughter was shut up [241]
in some distant hiding-place, he strained his wits in every
nerve to track her out. Hence, while he was himself con-
ducting the search with others, his doubtful ear caught the
distant sound of a subterranean hum. Then he went on slowly,
and recognised a human voice with greater certainty. He
ordered the ground underfoot to be dug down to the solid
rock ; and when the cave was suddenly laid open, he saw the
winding tunnels. The servants were slain as they tried to
guard the now uncovered entrance to the cave, and the girl was
dragged out of the hole, together with the booty therein con-
cealed. With great foresight, she had consigned at any rate
her father's swords to the protection of a more secret place.
Gunnar forced her to submit to his will, and she bore a son
Hildiger. This man was such a rival to his father in cruelty,

For a dog king, cf. Heimskriuyla, i.

290 SAXO GKAMMATICUS.

that he was ever thirsting to kill, and was bent on nothing but
the destruction of men, panting with a boundless lust for
bloodshed. Outlawed by his father on account of his un-
bearable ruthlessness, and soon after presented by Alver with
a government, he spent his whole life in arms, visiting his
neighbours with wars and slaughters ; nor did he, in his estate
of banishment, relax his accustomed savagery a whit, but
would not change his spirit with his habitation.

Meanwhile Borgar, finding that Gunnar had married Drota,
the daughter of Regnald, by violence, took from him both
life and wife, and wedded Drota himself. She was not an
unwilling bride ; she thought it right for her to embrace
the avenger of her parent. For the daughter mourned her
father, and could never bring herself to submit with any
pleasure to his murderer. This woman and Borgar had a son
Halfdan, who through all his early youth was believed to be
stupid, but whose later years proved illustrious for the most
glorious deeds, and famous for the highest qualities that can
grace life. Once, when a stripling, he mocked in boyish
fashion at a champion of noble repute, who smote him
with a buffet ; whereupon Halfdan attacked him with the
staff he was carrying and killed him. This deed was an
omen of his future honours ; he had hitherto been held in
scorn, but henceforth throughout his life he had the highest
honour and glory. The affair, indeed, was a prophecy of the
greatness of his deeds in war.

At this period, Rothe, a Ruthenian rover, almost destroyed
our country with his rapine and cruelty. His harshness was
so notable that, while other men spared their prisoners utter
[242] nakedness, he did not think it uncomely to strip of their cover-
ings even the privy parts of their bodies ; wherefore we are
wont to this day to call all severe and monstrous acts of rapine
Rothe-Ran [Rothe's Robbery]. He used also sometimes to
inflict the following kind of torture. Fastening the men's
right feet firmly to the earth, he tied the left feet to
boughs bent for the purpose, so that when these sprang
back the body was rent asunder in the middle. Hane, Prince
of Funen, wishing to win honour and glory, tried to attack

BOOK SEVEN. 291

this man with his sea-forces, but took to flight with one
attendant. It was in reproach of him that the proverb
arose : " The cock [Hane] fights better on its own dung-hill."1
Then Borgar, who could not bear to see his countrymen
perishing any longer, encountered Rothe. Together they fought
and together they perished. It is said that in this battle
Half clan was sorely stricken, and was for some time feeble
with the wounds he had received. One of these was inflicted
conspicuously on his mouth, and its scar was so manifest that
it remained as an open blotch when all the other wounds
were healed ; for the crushed portion of the lip was so
ulcerated by the swelling, that the flesh would not grow out
again and mend the noisome gash. This circumstance fixed
on him a most insulting nickname,2 . . . although wounds in
the front of the body commonly bring praise and not
ignominy. So spiteful a colour does the belief of the vulgar
sometimes put upon men's virtues.

Meanwhile Gurid, the daughter of Alf, seeing that the
royal line was reduced to herself alone, and having no equal
in birth whom she could marry, proclaimed a vow imposing
chastity on herself, thinking it better to have no husband
than to take one from the commons. Moreover, to escape
outrage, she guarded her room with a chosen band of
champions. Once Half dan happened to come to see her.
The champions, whose brother he had himself slain in his
boyhood, were away. He told her that she ought to loose
her virgin zone, and exchange her austere chastity for deeds
of love ; that she ought not to give in so much to her inclina-
tion for modesty as to be too proud to make a match, and so
by her service repair the fallen monarchy. So he bade her look
on himself, who was of eminently illustrious birth, in the
light of a husband, since it appeared that she would only admit
pleasure for the reason he had named. Gurid answered that
she could not bring her mind to ally the remnants of the
royal line to a man of meaner rank. Not content with [243]
reproaching his obscure birth, she also taunted his unsightly

1 On its own dung-hill] in propria Larc. 2 A lacuna here, probably.

u 2

292 SAXO GRAMMA TICUS.

countenance. Half dan rejoined that she brought against him
two faults : one, that his blood was not illustrious enough ;
another, that he was blemished with a cracked lip whose scar
had never healed. Therefore he would not come back to ask
for her before he had wiped away both marks of shame by
winning glory in war. He also entreated her to suffer no
man to be privy to her bed until she heard certain tidings either
of his return or his death. The champions, whom he had
bereaved of their brother long ago, were angry that he had
spoken to Gurid, and tried to ride after him as he went away.
When he saw it, he told his comrades to go into ambush, and
said he would encounter the champions alone. His followers
lingered, and thought it shameful to obey his orders, but he
drove them off with threats, saying that Gurid should not
find that fear had made him refuse to fight. Presently he
cut down an oak-tree and fashioned it into a club, fought the
twelve single-handed, and killed them. After their destruc-
tion, not content with the honours of so splendid an action,
and meaning to do one yet greater, he got from his mother the
swords of his grandfather, one of which was called Lyusing . . .
and the other Hwyting,1 after the sheen of its well- whetted
point. But when he heard that war was raging between
Alver, the King of Sweden, and the Ruthenians [Russians], he
instantly went to Russia, offered help to the natives, and was
received by all with the utmost honour. Alver was not far
off, there being only a little ground to cross to cover the
distance between the two. Alver's soldier Hildiger, the son of
Gunnar, challenged the champions of the Ruthenians to fight
him ; but when he saw that Half dan was put up against him,
though knowing well that he was Halfdan's brother, he let
natural feeling prevail over courage, and said that he, who was
famous for the destruction of seventy champions, would not
fight with an untried man. Therefore he told him to measure
himself in enterprises of lesser moment, and thenceforth to
follow pursuits fitted to his strength. He made this announce-
ment not from distrust in his own courage, but in order to

1 Lyusing . . . Hwyting] Shining . . . White. Probably a line is
dropped after Lyusing, explaining the name.

BOOK SEVEX. 293

preserve his uprightness ; for he was not only very valiant,
but also skilled at blunting the sword with spells. For when
he remembered that Halfdan's father had slain his own, he
was moved by two feelings — the desire to avenge his father,
and his love for his brother. He therefore thought it better
to retire from the challenge than to be guilty of a very great
crime. Halfdan demanded another champion in his place,
slew him when he appeared, and was soon awarded the palm [244]
of valour even by the voice of the enemy, being accounted by
public acclamation the bravest of all. On the next day he
asked for two men to fight with, and slew them both. On
the third day he subdued three ; on the fourth he overcame
four who met him ; and on the fifth he asked for five. When
he had conquered these, and when the eighth day had been
reached with an equal increase in the combatants and in the
victory, he laid low eleven who attacked him at once. Hii-
diger, seeing that his own record of honours was equalled by
the greatness of Halfdan's deeds, could not bear to decline to
meet him any longer. And when he felt that Halfdan had
dealt him a deadly wound with a sword wrapped in rags, he
threw away his arms, and, lying on the earth, addressed his
brother as follows :

" It is pleasing1 to pass an hour away in mutual talk ;
and, while the sword rests, to sit a little on the ground and
while away the time by speaking in turn, and keep ourselves
in good heart. Time is left for our purpose ; our two
destinies have a different lot ; one is surely doomed to die by
a fatal weird, while triumph and glory and all the good of
living await the other in better years. Thus our omens differ,
and our portions are distinguished. Thou art a son of the
Danish land, I of the country of Sweden. Once, Drota thy
mother had her breast swell for thee ; she bore me, and by her
I am thy foster-brother. Lo now, there perishes a righteous
offspring, who had the heart to fight with savage spears;

1 It is pleasing . . . ] Obscure. Saxo, to judge from the fragments
of the original, has spun out his materials even more diffusely than usual.
See " Hildibrand's Lost Lay", Corp. Poet. Bor., i, 190, where the hero is
named Asmund.

294 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

brothers born of a shining race charge and bring death on one
another ; while they long for the height of power, they lose their
days, and, having now received a fatal mischief in their desire
for a sceptre, they will go to Styx in a common death. Fast
by my head stands my Swedish shield, which is adorned with
[as] a fresh mirror of diverse chasing, and ringed with layers of
marvellous fretwork. There a picture of many hues shows
slain nobles and conquered champions, and the wars also and
the notable deed of my right hand. In the midst is to be seen,
painted in bright relief,1 the figure of my son,2 whom this hand
bereft of his span of life. He was our only heir, the only
thought of his father's mind, and given to his mother with
comfort from above. An evil lot, which heaps years of ill-
[245] fortune on the joyous, chokes mirth in mourning, and troubles
our destiny. For it is lamentable and wretched to drag out a
downcast life, to draw breath through dismal days and to chafe
at foreboding. But whatsoever things are bound by the pro-
phetic order of the fates, whatsoever are shadowed in the
secrets of the divine plan, whatsoever are foreseen and fixed
in the course of the destinies, no change of what is transient
shall cancel these things."

When he had thus spoken, Halfdan condemned him for sloth
in avowing so late their bond of brotherhood ; he answered
that he had kept silence, that he might not be thought a coward
for refusing to fight, or a villain if he fought; and while
intent on these words of excuse, he died. But report had
given out among the Danes that Hildiger had overthrown
Halfdan. After this, Si war, a Saxon of very high birth, began
to be a suitor for Gurid, the only survivor of the royal blood
among the Danes. Secretly she preferred Halfdan to him,
and imposed on her wooer the condition that he should not
ask her in marriage till he had united into one body the king-
dom of the Danes, which was now torn limb from limb, and

1 Relief] caelamine. Some word suggesting hue would be expected
from " painted" (illita).

2 The figure of my son] Saxo has said nothing about the son in
question, but the original song of Asmund relates that he slew his son
11 unwillingly".

BOOK SEVEN. 295

restored by arms what had been wrongfully taken from her.
Siwar made a vain attempt to do this ; but as he bribed all
the guardians, she was at last granted to him in betrothal.
Halfdan heard of this in Russia through traders, and voyaged
so hard that he arrived before the time of the wedding-rites.
On their first day, before he went to the palace, he gave orders
that his men should not stir from the watches appointed them
till their ears caught the clash of the steel in the distance.
Unknown to the guests, he came and stood before the maiden,
and, that he might not reveal his meaning to too many by
bare and common speech, he composed a dark and ambiguous
sonp; as follows :

" As I left my father's sceptre, I had no fear of the wiles of
woman's device nor of female subtlety,

" When I overthrew one and two, three and four, and soon
live, and next six, then seven, and also eight, yea eleven single-
handed, triumphant in battle. L24^J

" But neither did I then think that I was to be shamed
with the taint of disgrace, with thy frailness to thy word and
thy beguiling pledges."

Gurid answered : " My soul wavered in suspense, with slender
power over events, and shifted about with restless fickle-
ness. The report of thee was so fleeting, so doubtful, borne
on uncertain stories, and parched my doubting heart. I
feared that the years of thy youth had perished by the sword.
Could I withstand singly my elders and governors, when they
forbade me to refuse that thing, and pressed me to become
a wife ? My love and my flame are both yet unchanged, they
shall be mate and match to thine ; nor has my troth been
disturbed, but shall have faithful approach to thee.

" For my promise has not yet beguiled thee at all, though I,
being alone, could not reject the counsel of such manifold
persuasion, nor oppose their stern bidding in the matter of my
consent to the marriage bond."1

Before the maiden had finished her answer, Halfdan had
already run his sword through the bridegroom. Not content

1 For my promise . . . marriage bond] In prose in the original.

296 SAXO GKAMMA.TICUS.

with having killed one man, he massacred most of the guests.
Staggering tipsily backwards, the Saxons ram at him, but
his servants came up and slaughtered them. After this
Halfdan took Gurid to wife. But finding in her the fault of
barrenness, and desiring much to have offspring, he went to
Upsala in order to procure fruitfulness for her ; and being
told, in answer, that he must make atonement to the shades of
his brother if he would raise up children, he obeyed the oracle,
and was comforted by gaining his desire. For he had a son
by Gurid, to whom he gave the name of Harald. Under
his title Halfdan tried to restore the kingdom of the Danes
[247] to its ancient estate, as it was torn asunder by the injuries
of the chiefs ; but, while fighting in Zealand, he attacked
Wesete, a very famous champion, in battle, and was slain.
Gurid was at the battle in man's attire, from love for her
son. She saw the event ; the young man fought hotly, but
his companions fled ; and she took him on her shoulders to
a neighbouring wood. Weariness, more than anything else,
kept the enemy from pursuing him ; but one of them shot
him as he hung, with an arrow, through the hinder parts, and
Harald thought that his mother's care brought him more
shame than help.

Harald, being of great beauty and unusual size, and sur-
passing those of his age in strength and stature, received such
favour from Odin (whose oracle was thought to have been the
cause of his birth), that steel could not injure his perfect sound-
ness. The result was, that shafts which wounded others were
disabled from doing him any harm. Nor was the boon un-
requited ; for he is reported to have promised to Odin all the
souls which his sword cast out of their bodies. He also had
his father's deeds recorded for a memorial by craftsmen on a
rock in Bleking, whereof I have made mention.1 After this,
hearing that Wesete was about to hold his wedding in Skane,
he went to the feast disguised as a beggar ; and when all were
sunken in wine and sleep, he battered the bride-chamber with
a beam. But Wesete, without inflicting a wound, so beat
liis mouth with a cudgel, that he took out two teeth ; but two

1 Made mention] namely, in his Preface, \). 8.

BOOK SEVEN. 297

grinders unexpectedly broke out afterwards and repaired
their loss : an event which earned him the name of Hyldetand,1
which some declare he obtained on account of a prominent row
of teeth. Here he slew Wesete, and got the sovereignty of
Skaane. Next he attacked and killed Hather in Jutland ; and
his fall is marked by the lasting name of the town.2 After
this he overthrew Hunding and Rorik, seized Leire, and re-
united the dismembered realm of Denmark into its original
shape. Then he found that Asmund, the King of the Wikars,
had been deprived of his throne by his elder sister ; and,
angered by such presumption on the part of a woman, went
to Norway with a single ship, while the war was still un-
decided, to help him. The battle began ; and, clothed in a
purple cloak, with a coif broidered with gold, and with his
hair bound up, he went against the enemy trusting not in
arms, but in his silent certainty of his luck, insomuch that
he seemed dressed more for a feast than a fray. But his
spirit did not match his attire. For, though unarmed and only [248]
adorned with his emblems of royalty, he outstripped the rest
who bore arms, and exposed himself ; lightly-armed as he was,
to the hottest perils of the battle. For the shafts aimed
against him lost all power to hurt, as if their points had
been blunted. When the other side saw him fighting unarmed,
they made an attack, and were forced for very shame into
assailing him more hotly. But Harald, whole in body, either
put them to the sword, or made them take to flight; and thus
he overthrew the sister of Asmund, and restored him his
kingdom. When Asmund offered him the prizes of victory,
he said that the reward of glory was enough by itself ; and
demeaned himself as greatly in refusing the gifts as he had in
earning them. By this he made all men admire his self-
restraint as much as his valour ; and declared that the victory
should give him a harvest not of gold but glory.

1 Hyldetand] Both of Saxo's explanations rest on the Old-Norse
hylja, Dan. hylle, "cover", and tann, Dan. taud, "tooth". The real
meaning is "war- tooth". See Corp. Poet. Bor. i. 231, Hyndlo-Liod, where
a different genealogy again is given. See p. 277 above.

2 Hadersleb.— M.

298

SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

Meantime Alver, the King of the Swedes, died, leaving
sons Olaf, Ing, and Ingild. One of these, Ing, dissatisfied
with the honours his father bequeathed him, declared war with
the Danes in order to extend his empire. And when Harald
wished to inquire of oracles how this war would end, an old
man of great height, but lacking one eye, and clad also in a hairy
mantle, appeared before him, and declared that he was called
Odin, and was versed in the practice of warfare ; and he gave
him the most useful instruction how to divide up his army1 in

1 Instruction how to divide up his army . . . .] There are several
interpretations of Saxo's obscure description, but that given by M. is by
far the most plausible. The following diagram (adapted from M. not.
uber. ii. 214) will explain it : —

S/B

VAN

II
WING \ll

IS L

CENTRE.

II
WINS

YOUNGMEN

VETERANS

SUN6ERS

MISCELLANEOUS

REAR
LIKE VAN

Thus, in each side-wing there are twenty rows, of which eleven are
formed in square, the remaining nine [triangle def] in wedge, the
point of the wedge consisting of two men, and each row behind increasing
by one in arithmetical progression. But the centre is "to extend further
than the rest by the number of twenty men", that is, twenty men in
wedge, arranged on the same principle. These are contained in triangle
abc. By the time the wedge-line of the centre reaches k l, the line
amounts to sixteen, and then the square formation begins, being eleven
deep from k to m. Behind these come the spearmen, etc. In the rear
of all, facing the other way, is a repetition of the formation of the van :
whether exactly like, Saxo does not say.

BOOK SEVEN. 299

the field. Now he told him, whenever he was going to make
war with his land-forces, to divide his whole army into three
squadrons, each of which he was to pack into twenty ranks ;
the centre squadron, however, he was to extend further
than the rest by the number of twenty men. This squadron
he was also to arrange in the form of the point of a cone or
pyramid, and to make the wings on either side slant off
obliquely from it. He was to compose the successive ranks
of each squadron in the following way : the front should
beo-in with two men, and the number in each succeeding
rank should only increase by one ; he was, in fact, to post
a rank of three in the second line, four in the third, and
so on behind. And thus, when the men mustered, all the
succeeding ranks were to be manned at the same rate of pro-
portion, until the end of [the edge that made] the junction of
men came down to the wings1 ; each wing was to be drawn up
in ten lines2 from that point. Likewise after these squadrons
he was to put the young men, equipped with lances, and behind
these to set the company of aged men, who would support
their comrades with what one might call a veteran valour
if they faltered ; next, a skilful reckoner should attach
wings3 of slingers, to stand behind the ranks of their fellows [249]
and attack the enemy from a distance with missiles. After
these he wsls to enrol men of any age or rank indiscrimi-
nately, without heed of their . estate. Moreover, he was
to draw up the rear like the vanguard, in three separated
divisions, and arranged in ranks similarly proportioned. The

1 Until the end of the edge that made the junction of men come down
to the wings] donee co7iiunccionis extremitas alas equaret. M. interprets
equaret to mean "became equal in numbers", but this involves con-
siderable difficulties and a straining of language. We interpret the
extremitas as the outside lines d f, a k, of the wedges, and the sense to be
that, when these converging lines met towards f and k, the wedge
formation (both in wings and centre) ceases, and the square begins.

2 In ten lines] not eleven, because ef and kl are counted as belonging
to the wedge and not to the square. The "point" is e, f, k, or l.

3 Wings] alas. The word suggests that these may have been out at the
side, and not behind, as the diagram has it.

300 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

back of this, joining on to the body in front, would protect
it by facing in the opposite direction. But if a sea-battle
happened to occur, he should withdraw a portion of his fleet,
which, when he began the intended engagement, was to cruise
round that of the enemy, wheeling to and fro continually.
Equipped with this system of warfare, he forestalled matters
in Sweden, and killed Ing and Olaf as thev were making
ready to fight. Their brother Ingild sent messengers to beg
a truce, on pretence of his ill-health. Harald granted his
request, that his own valour, which had learnt to spare distress,
might not triumph over a man in the hour of lowliness and
dejection. When Ingild afterwards provoked Harald by
wrongfully ravishing his sister, Harald vexed him with
long and indecisive war, but then took him into his
friendship, thinking it better to have him for ally than for
enemy.

After this lie heard that Olaf, King of the Thronds, had
to fight with the maidens Stikla and Rusila for the kingdom.
Much angered at this arrogance on the part of women, he
went to Olaf unobserved, put on dress which concealed the
length of his teeth, and attacked the maidens. He overthrew
them both, leaving to two harbours a name akin to theirs.1
It was then that he gave a notable exhibition of valour ; for,
defended only by a shirt under his shoulders, he fronted the
spears with unarmed breast. When Olaf offered him the
prize of victory, he rejected the gift, thus leaving it a question
whether he had shown a greater example of bravery or self-
control. Then he attacked a champion of the Frisian nation,
named Ubbe, who was ravaoino- the borders of Jutland and
destroying numbers of the common people; and, when he could
not subdue him to his arms, he charged his soldiers to grip him
with their hands, threw him on the ground, and had him
bound while thus overpowered. Thus he only overcame the
man and mastered him by a shameful kind of attack, though
a little before he thought he would inflict a heavy defeat on
him. But Harald gave him his sister in marriage, and thus
A name akin to theirs] Stiklestad still exists, but is not a harbour.

BOOK SEVEN. 301

gained him for his soldier. Then he made tributaries of the
nations that lay along the Rhine, levying troops from the bravest
of that race. With these forces he conquered Sclavonia in
war, and caused its generals, Duk and Dal, because of their [250]
bravery, to be captured, and not killed. These men he took
to serve with him, and, after overcoming Aquitania,1 soon
went to Britain, where he overthrew the King of the Hum-
brians, and enrolled the smartest of the warriors he had
conquered, the chief of whom was esteemed to be Orm, sur-
named the Briton. The fame of these deeds brought cham-
pions from divers parts of the world, whom he formed into
a band of mercenaries. Strengthened by their numbers, he
kept down insurrections in all kingdoms by the terror of his
name, so that he took out of their rulers all courage to fight
with one another. Moreover, no man durst assume any
sovereignty on the sea without his consent ; for of old the
state of the Danes had the joint lordship of land and sea.

Meantime Ingild died in Sweden, leaving only a very little
son, Ring, whom he had by the sister of Harald. Harald
gave the bo}7 guardians, and put him over his father's king-
dom. Thus, when he had overcome princes and provinces, he
passed fifty years in peace. To save the minds of his soldiers
from being melted into sloth by this inaction, he decreed that
they should assiduously learn from the champions the way
of parrying and dealing blows. Some of these were skilled
in a remarkable manner of fiohtino- and used to smite the
eyebrow on the enemy's forehead with an infallible stroke ;
but if any man, on receiving the blow, blinked for fear,
twitching his eyebrow, he was at once expelled the court and
dismissed the service.

At this time Ole, the son of Siward and of Harald's
sister, came to Denmark from the land of Norway in the
desire to see his uncle. Since it is known that he had the
first place among the followers of Harald, and that after the

1 Aquitania] Aquitaine was attacked first in 799, then in the ninth
century, when Bordeaux was betrayed by the Jews : Harold Blue-tooth
came to Normandy in the tenth century.

302 SAXO GllAMMATICUS.

Swedish war he came to the throne of Denmark, it bears
somewhat on the subject to relate the traditions of his deeds.
Ole, then, when he had passed his tenth to his fifteenth year
with his father, showed incredible proofs of his brilliant gifts
both of mind and body. Moreover, he was so savage of counten-
ance, that his eyes were like the arms of other men against the
enemy, and he terrified the bravest with his stern and flashing
glance. He heard the tidings that Gunn, ruler of Tellemark,
with his son Grim, was haunting as a robber the forest of
Etha-scog,1 which was thick with underbrush and full of
gloomy glens. The offence moved his anger; then he asked his
father for a horse, a dog, and such armour as could be got,
and cursed his youth, which was suffering the right season for
[251] valour to slip sluggishly away. He got what he asked, and
explored the aforesaid wood very narrowly. He saw the
footsteps of a man printed deep on the snow ; for the rime
was blemished by the steps, and betrayed the robber's progress.
Thus guided, he went over a hill, and came on a very
great river. This effaced the human tracks he had seen
before, and he determined that he must cross. But the mere
mass of water, whose waves ran down in a headlong torrent,
seemed to forbid all crossing ; for it was full of hidden
reefs, and the whole length of its channel was turbid with
a kind of whirl of foam. Yet all fear of danger was banished
from Ole's mind by his impatience to make haste. So valour
conquered fear, and rashness scorned peril ; thinking nothing
hard to do if it were only to his mind, he crossed the
hissing eddies on horseback. When he had passed these, he
came upon defiles surrounded on all sides with swamps, the
interior of which was barred from easy approach by the
obstacle of a bank in front. He took his horse over this, and
saw an enclosure with a number of stalls. Out of this he
turned many horses, and was minded to put in his own,
when a certain Tok, a servant of Gunn, angry that a stranger

1 Ethaseog] " Eyda-skog, a wood in Norway, between the Soleyar
and Raumarik, near the borders of Sweden." — M. Cf. Landmimaboc's
story of Iokul.

BOOK SEVEN. 303

should wax so insolent, attacked him fiercely ; but Ole foiled
his assailant by simply opposing his shield. Thinking it
a shame to slay the fellow with the sword, he seized him,
shattered him limb by limb, and flung him across into the
house whence he had issued in his haste. This insult quickly
aroused Gunn and Grim : they ran out by different side-doors,
and charged Ole both at once, despising his age and strength.
He wounded them fatally ; and, when their bodily powers
were quite spent, Grim, who could scarce muster a final gasp,
and whose force was almost utterly gone, with his last pants
composed this song :

" Though we be weak in frame, and the loss of blood has
drained our strength ; since the life-breath, now drawn out
by my wound, scarce quivers softly in my pierced breast :

" I counsel that we should make the battle of our last hour
glorious with dauntless deeds, that none may say that a combat
has anywhere been bravelier waged or harder fought ;

" And that our wild strife while we bore arms may, when
our weary flesh has found rest in the tomb, win us the wage [252]
of immortal fame.

" Let our first stroke crush the shoulder-blades of the foe,
let our steel cut off both his hands ; so that, when Stygian
Pluto has taken us, a like doom may fall on Ole also, and
a common death tremble over three, and one urn cover the
ashes of three."

Here Grim ended. But his father, rivalling his indomitable
spirit, and wishing to give some exhortation in answer to his
son's valiant speech, thus began :

" What though our veins be wholly bloodless, and in our
frail body the life be brief, yet let our last fight be so strong
and strenuous that it suffer not the praise of us to be brief
also.

" Therefore aim the javelin first at the shoulders and arms
of the foe, so that the work of his hands may be weakened ;
and thus when we are gone three shall receive a common sepul-
chre, and one urn alike for three shall cover our united dust."

When he had said this, both of them, resting on their

304 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

knees (for the approach of death had drained their strength),
made a desperate effort to fight Ole hand to hand, in order
that, before they perished, they might slay their enemy also ;
counting death as nothing if only they might envelope their
slayer in a common fall. Ole slew one of them with his sword,
the other with his hound. But even he gained no bloodless
victory; for, though he had been hitherto unscathed, now at
last he received a wound in front. His dog diligently licked
him over, and he regained his bodily strength : and soon, to
publish sure news of his victory, he hung the bodies of the
robbers upon gibbets in wide view. Moreover, he took the
stronghold, and put in secret keeping all the booty he found
there, in reserve for future use.

At this time the arrogant wantonness of the brothers Skate
and Hiale waxed so high that they would take virgins of
notable beauty from their parents and ravish them. Hence it
came about that they formed the purpose of seizing Esa, the
daughter of Olaf, prince of the Werms ; and bade her father,
if he would not have her serve the passion of a stranger, fight
either in person, or by some deputy, in defence of his child.
[2^1 When Ole had news of this, he rejoiced in the chance of a
battle, and borrowing the attire of a peasant, went to the
dwelling of Olaf. He received one of the lowest places at
table ; and when he saw the household of the king in sorrow,
he called the king's son closer to him, and asked why they all
wore so lamentable a face. The other answered, that unless
someone quickly interposed to protect them, his sister's
chastity would soon be outraged by some ferocious cham-
pions. Ole next asked him what reward would be received
by the man who devoted his life for the maiden. Olaf, on his
son asking him about this matter, said that his daughter
should go to the man who fought for her : and these words,
more than anything, made Ole long to encounter the danger.
Now the maiden was wont to go close up to the guests and
scan their faces narrowly, holding out a light that she might
have a surer view of the dress and character of those who
were entertained. It is also believed that she divined their

BOOK SEVEN. 805

lineage from the lines and features of the face, and could
discern any man's birth by sheer shrewdness of vision.
When she stood and fixed the scrutiny of her gaze upon
Olaf, she was stricken with the strange awfulness of his
eyes, and fell almost lifeless. But when her strength came
slowly back, and her breath went and came more freely,
she again tried to look at the young man, but suddenly
slipped and fell forward, as though distraught. A third
time also she strove to lift her closed and downcast gaze,
but suddenly tottered and fell, unable not only to move her
eyes, but even to control her feet ; so much can strength be
palsied by amazement. When Olaf saw it, he asked her why
she had fallen so often. She averred that she was stricken by
the savage gaze of the guest ; that he was born of kings ; and
she declared that if he could baulk the will of the ravishers,
he was well worthy of her arms. Then all of them asked
Ole, who was keeping his face muffled in a hat, to fling off
his covering, and let them see something by which to learn
his features. Then, bidding them all lay aside their grief, and
keep their heart far from sorrow, he uncovered his brow ; and
he drew the eyes of all upon him in marvel at his great
beauty. For his locks were golden and the hair of his head
was radiant ; but he kept the lids close over his pupils, that
they might not terrify the beholders. All were heartened
with a hope of better things ; the guests seemed to dance and
the courtiers to leap for joy ; the deepest melancholy seemed
to be scattered by an outburst of cheerfulness. Thus hope
relieved their fears ; the banquet wore a new face, and nothing [254]
was the same, or like what it had been before. So the
kindly promise of a single guest dispelled the universal terror.
Meanwhile Hiale and Skate came up with ten servants, mean-
ing to carry off the maiden then and there, and disturbed all
the place with their noisy shouts. They called on the king
to give battle, unless he produced his daughter instantly.
Ole at once met their frenzy with a promise to fight, adding
the condition that no one should stealthily attack an oppo-
nent in the rear, but should only combat in the battle face

306 SAXO GBAMMATICUS.

to face. Then, with his sword called Logthi, he felled them
all, single-handed — an achievement beyond his years. The
o-round for the battle was found on an isle in the middle
of a swamp, not far from which is a stead1 that serves to
memorise this slaughter, bearing the names of the brothers
Hiale and Skate together.

So the girl was given him as prize of the combat, and bore
him a son Omund. Then he gained his father-in-law's leave
to revisit his father. But when lie heard that his country
was being attacked by Thore, with the help of Toste
Sacrificer,2 and Leotar, surnamed . . . .3 he went to fight them,
content with a single servant, who was dressed as a woman.
When he was near the house of Thore, he concealed his own
and his attendant's swords in hollowed staves. And when
he entered the palace, he disguised his true countenance,
and feigned to be a man broken with age. He said that with
Siward he had been king of the beggars, but that he was now
in exile, having been stubbornly driven forth by the hatred of
the king's son Ole. Presently many of the courtiers greeted
him with the name of king, and began to kneel and offer him
their hands in mockery. He told them to bear out in deeds
what they had done in jest ; and, plucking out the swords
which he and his man kept shut in their staves, attacked the
king. So some aided Ole, taking it more as jest than earnest,
and would not be false to the loyalty which they mockingly
yielded him; but most of them, breaking their idle vow, took
the side of Thore. Thus arose an internecine and undecided
fray. At last Thore was overwhelmed and slain by the arms
of his own folk, as much as by those of his guests ; and

1 A stead] This was called Glaumdein, and was in Halland. For the
old cairn-song, given in the Appendix to Laiidndmabdc, see Corp. Poet.
Bar. ii. 328. The second hero is there called Sniall, not Skate.

- Toste Sacriticer] Tostonem Victvmarium^ probably Blot-Toste in ori-
ginal.

3 Leotar, surnamed . . . .] Leotarum coy nomine praeditum. A

surname has dropped out, though St. inserts the word Monster, which he
says was a gloss on the margin of an old MS.

BOOK SEVEN. 307

Leotar, wounded to the death, and judging that his conqueror,
Ole, was as keen in mind as he was valorous in deeds, gave
him the name of the Vigorous, and prophesied that he should
perish by the same kind of trick as he had used with Thore ;
for, without question he should fall by the treachery of his
own house. And, as he* spoke, he suddenly passed away.
Thus we can see that the last speech of the dying man [255]
expressed by its shrewd divination the end that should come
upon his conqueror.

After these deeds Ole did not go back to his father till he
had restored peace to his house. His father gave him the
command of the sea, and he destroyed seventy sea-kings in
a naval battle. The most distinguished among these were
Birwil and Hwirwil, Thorwil, Nef and Onef, Redward [?], Rand
and Erand f?].1 By the honour and glory of this exploit he
excited many champions, whose whole heart's desire was for
bravery, to join in alliance with him. He also enrolled into a
bodyguard the wild young warriors who were kindled with a
passion for glory. Among these he received Starkad with the
greatest honour, and cherished him with more friendship than
profit. Thus fortified, he checked, by the greatness of his
name, the wantonness of the neighbouring kings, in that he
took from them all their forces and all liking and heart for
mutual warfare.

After this he went to Harald, who made him commander of
the sea ; and at last he was transferred to the service of Ring.
At this time one Brun was the sole partner and confidant of
all Harald's councils. To this man both Harald and Ring,
whenever they needed a secret messenger, used to entrust their
commissions. This degree of intimacy he obtained because he
had been reared and fostered with them. But Brun, amid
the toils of his constant journeys to and fro, was drowned in
a certain river ; and Odin,2 disguised under his name and looks,
shook the close union of the kings by his treacherous embas-
sage ; and he sowed strife so guilefully that he engendered in

1 See list of Sea-kings in Thulor, 0. P. B. ii. 423.

2 "Woden sets kings warring", says the old heathen saw.

x 2

308 SAXO GRAMMATTCUS.

men, who were bound by friendship and blood, a bitter mutual
hate, which seemed unappeasable except by war. Their dissen-
sions first grew up silently ; at last both sides betrayed their
leanings, and their secret malice burst into the light of day.
So they declared their feuds, and seven years passed in collect-
ing the materials of war. Some 'say that Harald secretly
sought occasions to destroy himself, not being moved by
malice or jealousy for the crown, but by a deliberate and
voluntary effort. His old age and his cruelty made him a
burden to his subjects ; he preferred the sword to the pangs of
disease, and liked better to lay down his life in the battle-field
than in his bed, that he might have an end in harmony with
the deeds of his past life. Thus, to make his death more illus-
trious, and go to the nether world in a larger company, he
longed to summon many men to share his end ; and he there-
[256] fore of his own will prepared for war, in order to make food for
future slaughter. For these reasons, being seized with as great
a thirst to die himself as to kill others, and wishing the
massacre on both sides to be equal, he furnished both sides
with equal resources ; but let Ring have a somewhat stronger
force, preferring he should conquer and survive him.

KM) OF BOOK SEVEN.

BOOK EIGHT.

Starkad was the first to set in order in Danish speech the [257]
history of the Swedish war,1 a conflict whereof he was himself
a mighty pillar ; the said history being rather an oral than
a written tradition. He set forth and arranged the course of
this war in the mother tonoue according to the fashion of our
country ; but I purpose to put it into Latin, and will first
recount the most illustrious princes on either side. For
I have felt no desire to include the multitude, which are even
past exact numbering. And my pen shall relate first those
on the side of Harald, and presently those who served under
Rino;.

Now the most famous of the captains that mustered to Harald
are acknowledged to have been Sweyn and Sambar [Sam ?],
Ambar and Elli ; Rati of Funen, Salgard and Roe [Hrothgar],
whom his lono- beard distinguished by a nickname.2 Be-
sides these, Skalk the Scanian and Alf the son of Agg; to
whom are joined Olwir the Broad and Gnepie the Old. Besides

1 Swedish war] For other lists of the combatants at Bravalla, see Corp.
Poet. Bor. i. 353-5, which gives the list from Skioldunga, and various
fragments of verse from mythical sagas. None of these is the original
list, which is lost, but they enable us to give equivalents; often conjectural,
for some of Saxo's strange names (e.j/., Humnehy, Erand) bear, as they
stand, no likeness to Scandinavian words. Owing to this difficulty we
have several times, in order to keep nearer the original, not held to our
ordinary rules of transliterating (such, for instance, as turning final -*
into -e). The words in brackets are the more or less conjectural inter-
pretations drawn from Skioldunga and the verses. This list falls roughly
into a series of alliterative lines of a common kind, each containing four
names or epithets. See M. (not. vb., ii. 219 sqq.), who reconstructs from
it a hypothetical poem in Old Norse.

- Nickname] Probably O. Norse Sid-skeggr.

310 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

these there were Gardh, founder1 of the town Stang. To
these are added the kinsfolk or bound followers of Harald2 :
Blend [Blaeng?], the dweller in furthest Thule,3 and Brand,
whose surname was Crumb [Bitling ?]. Allied with these were
Thorgny, with Thorwing, Tatar [Teit], and Hialte. These men
voyaged to Leire with bodies armed for war ; but they were
also mighty in excellence of wit, and their trained courage
matched their great stature ; for they had skill in discharging
arrows both from bow and catapult, and at fighting their foe,
as they commonly did, man to man ; and also at readily
stringing together verse in the speech of their country : so
[258] zealously had they trained mind and body alike. Now out
of Leire came Hortar [Hjort] and Borrhy [Borgar or Borgny],
and also Belgi and Beigad, to whom were added Bari and
Toli. Now out of the town of Sle,4 under the captains Hetha
[Heid] and Wisna, with Hakon Cut-cheek came Tummi the Sail-
maker. On these captains, who had the bodies of women,
nature bestowed the souls of men. Webiorg was also inspired
with the same spirit, and was attended by Bo [Bui] Bramason
and Brat the Jute, thirsting for war. In the same throng came
Orm of England, Ubbe the Frisian, Ari the One-eyed, and Alf5
Goter. Next in the count came Dal6 the Fat and Duk the
Sclav. Wisna, a woman, filled with sternness, and a skilled
warrior, was guarded by a band of Sclavs : her chief followers
were Barri and Gnizli. But the rest of the same company
had their bodies covered by little shields, and used very
long swords and targets of skiey hue, which, in time of war,
they either cast behind their backs or gave over to the
baggage- bearers ; while they cast away all protection to their
breasts, and exposed their bodies to every peril, offering battle

1 Gardh, founder of the town Stang] So Holder rightly, as shown by
use of Gardas on p. 316. Older edd. read Gardhstang oppidicultor.

2 Harald] necessarily lit. "kinsmen", but including (M.) all those
bound en (skyldir) to his service.

3 Furthest Thule] The names of Icelanders have thus crept into the
account of a battle fought before the discovery of Iceland.

4 Sle] Schleswig. 5 Alf Goter] ed. pr. has Alf et Gottr.
li Dal J Skiol.l rea.'s Dag*

ROOK EIGHT. 311

with drawn swords. The most illustrious of these were Tolkar
and Ymi. After these, Toki of the province of Wollin1 was
conspicuous together with Otrit surnamed the Young. Hetha,
guarded by a retinue of very active men, brought an armed
company to the war, the chiefs of whom were Grim and
Grenzli ; next to whom are named Geir the Livonian, Hame
also and Hunger, Humbli and Biari, bravest of the princes.
These men often fought duels successfully, and won famous
victories far and wide. So the maidens I have named, in
fighting as well as courteous array, led their land-forces to
the battle-field. Thus the Danish army mustered company
by company. There were seven kings, equal in spirit but
differing in allegiance, some defending Harald, and some Ring.
Moreover, the following went to the side of Harald : Homi

and Hosathul2 [Eysothul?], Him , Hastin and Hythin

[Hedin] the Slight, also Dahar [Dag], named Grenski,3 and
Harald Olafsson also. From the province of Aland4 came
Har and Herlewar [Herleif], with Hothbrodd surnamed the
Furious ; these fought in the Danish camp. But from Imis-
land5 arrived Humnehy [?] and Harald. They were joined by
Haki and by Sigmund and Serker the sons of Bemon, all
coming from the North. All these were retainers of the king,
who befriended them most generously ; for they were held in
the highest distinction by him, receiving swords adorned with

gold, and the choicest spoils of war. There came also [259]

the sons of Gandal6 the old, who were in the intimate favour of
Harald by reason of ancient allegiance. Thus the sea was
studded with the Danish fleet, and seemed to interpose a
bridge, uniting Zealand to Skaane. To those that wished to
pass between those provinces, the sea offered a short road
on foot over the dense mass of ships. But Harald would

1 Wollin] A.n island named elsewhere in Saxo. Iidinensi is correction
of modern edd. for Jumend of ed. pr.

2 Hosathul] Correction of edd. for H<psa TJmlhim of ed. pr.

3 Grenski] Of Gronland in Norway.

4 Aland] Halica; ed. pr., Hatica.

5 From Imisland] ex Imica regioue. Query, Huindca ?

G Gandal] Lacuna, probably, omitting names of the sons.

312 SAXO GRAMMATTCTTS.

not have the Swedes unprepared in their arrangements for war,
and sent men to Ring to carry his public declaration of
hostilities, and notify the rupture of the mediating peace.
The same men were directed to prescribe the place of combat.
These then whom I have named were the fighters for
Harald.

Now, on the side of Ring were numbered Ulf, Aggi [Aki ?],
Windar [Eywind ?], Egil the One-eyed ; Gotar, Hildi, Guti
Alfsson ; Styr the Stout, and [Tolo-] Stein, who lived by the
Wienie Mere.1 To these were joined Gerd the Glad and
Gromer [Glum ?] from Wermland. After these are reckoned
the dwellers north on the Elbe, Saxo the Splitter,2 Sali the
Goth ; Thord the Stumbler, Throndar Big-nose ; GrundL Oddi,
Grindir, Tovi ; Roll, Biarki, Hogni the Clever, Rokar the
Swart. Now these scorned fellowship with the common
soldiers, and had formed themselves into a separate rank
apart from the rest of the company. Besides these are
numbered Hrani Hildisson and Lyuth Guthi [Hljot Godi],
Svein the Top-shorn, [Soknarsoti3 ?], Rethyr [Hreidar ?] Hawk,
and Rolf the Uxorious [Woman-lover]. Massed with these were
Ring Adilsson and Harald who came from Thotn district.
Joined to these were Walstein of Wick, Thorolf the Thick,
Thengel the Tall, Hun, Solwe, Birwil the Pale, Borgar and
Skumbar [Skuin]. But from Tellemark came the bravest of
all, who had most courage but least arrogance — Thorleif the
Stubborn, Thorkill the Gute [Gothlander], Grettir the Wicked
and the Lover of Invasions. Next to these came Hadd the
Hard and Rolder [Hroald] Toe-joint.

From Norway we have the names of Thrand of Throndhjem,
Thoke [Thore] of More, Hrafn the White, Haf[war], Biarni,
Blihar [Blig ?] surnamed Snub-nosed ; Biorn from the district
of Sogni ; Findar [Finn] born in the Firth ; Bersi born in the

1 Wienie Mere] Wienicae Palndis, Venerso (Schousb.).

2 Saxo the Splitter] Saxa, Fletir in ed. pr. The last word is an
appellative of the first.

3 Soknarsoti] Inserted by M. out of the list in Skioldunga in order to
make up the metre.

BOOK EIGHT. 313

town Ffijalu1 ; Siward Boarhead. Erik tlie Story-teller"2
Holinstein3 the Wliite, Hrut Rawi [or Vafi, the Doubter], Erling
surnamed Snake. Now from the province of Jather came Odd
the Englishman, Alf the Far- wanderer, Enar the Paunched,4
and Ywar surnamed Thriug. Now from Thule [Iceland] came
Mar the Red, born and bred in the district called Midfirth ;
Grombar the Aged, Gram Brundeluk [Bryndalk ?] Grim from [260]
the town of Skier[um]5 born in Skagafiord. Next came Berg
the Seer, accompanied by Bragi and Rafnkel.

Now the bravest of the Swedes were these : Arwakki,6
Keklu-Karl [Kelke-Karl], Krok the Peasant7 [from Akr],
Gudfast and Guinmi from Gislamark. These were kindred of
the god Frey, and most faithful witnesses to the gods. Ingi
[Yngwe] also, and Oly, Alver, Folki, all sons of Elrik [Alrek],
embraced the service of Ring ; they were men ready of hand,
quick in counsel, and very close friends of Ring. They likewise
held the god Frey to be the founder of their race. Amongst
these from the town of Sigtun also came Sigmund, a champion
advocate, versed in making contracts of sale and purchase ;
besides him Frosti surnamed Bowl : allied with him was
Alf the Lofty [Proud ?] from the district of Upsala ; this
man was a swift spear-thrower, and used to go in the front of
the battle. Ole had a body-guard of seven kings, very ready
of hand and of counsel ; namely, Holti, Hendil, Hoi mar,
Lewy [Leif], and Hame ; with these was enrolled Regnald the
Russian, the grandson of Radbard8 ; and Siwald also furrowed
the sea with eleven light ships. Lesy [Laesi], the conqueror

1 Falu] Fjalir or Fjalafylke is a district in Norway.

2 Story-teller] fabulator, Sogo-Eirekr ; corrected from fibidator of ed.
pr.

3 Holmstein] ed. pr., Alsten.

4 Paunched] Protuberaits. Skiold. has Einarr thriiig, Ioarr seage.

6 Skier] Skerry in Iceland.

(i Arwakki] Arvali (M.) for Ar BacJd of ed. pr.

7 Peasant] agrestis, Krolarr af Akri (Skiold.). Saxo has made the
place into an epithet.

b Radbard] Saxo has perhaps misread Radbardr hnefi into Badbarthi
nepos.

314 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

of the Pannonians [Huns], fitted with a sail his swift galley
ringed with gold. Thririkar [Erik Helsing] sailed in a
ship whose prows were twisted like a dragon. Also Thrygir
[Tryggve] and Torwil sailed and brought twelve ships
jointly. In the entire fleet of Ring there were 2,500 ships.
Now the fleet of Gotland was waiting for the Swedish fleet
in the harbour named Garnum.1 So Ring led the land-force,
while Ole was instructed to command the fleet. Now the
Goths were appointed a time and a place between Wik2 and
Werund3 for the conflict with the Swedes. Then was the sea
to be seen furrowed up with prows, and the canvas unfurled
upon the masts cut off the view over the ocean. The Danes
had so far been distressed with bad weather ; but the Swedish
fleet had a fair voyage, and had reached the scene of battle
earlier. Here Ring disembarked his forces from his fleet, and
then massed and prepared to draw up in line both these and the
army he had himself conducted overland. When these forces
were at first loosely drawn up over the open country, it was
found that one wing reached all the way to Werund. The
multitude was confused in its places and ranks ; but the king
rode round it, and posted in the van all the smartest and
most excellently-armed men, led by Ole, Regnald, and Wivil
then he massed the rest of the army on the two wings in
[261] a kind of curve. Ung, with the sons of Alrek, and Trig, he
ordered to protect the right wing, while the left was put
under the command of Laesi. Moreover, the wings and the
masses were composed mainly of a close squadron of Kur-
landers and of Esthonians. Last stood the line of simmers.

Meantime the Danish fleet, favoured by kindly winds,
sailed, without stopping, for twelve days, and came to the
town [stead] of Kalmar. The wind-blown sails covering the
waters were a marvel ; and the canvas, stretched upon the
yards, blotted out the sight of the heavens. For the fleet was
augmented by the Sclavs and the Livonians and 7,000 Saxons.

1 Garnum] Garnshamn in the isle of Gotland.

'-' Wik] in S. Gothland.

:; Werund] Yaarnsland in Smaaland, named in Saxo's Pref., p. 9.

BOOK EIGHT. 315

But the Skanians, knowing the country, were appointed as
guides and scouts to those who were going over the dry
land. So when the Danish army came upon the Swedes,
who stood awaiting them, Ring told his men to stand
quietly until Harald had drawn up his line of battle :
bidding them not to sound the signal before they saw the
king settled in his chariot beside the standards ; for he said
he should hope that an army would soon come to grief which
trusted in the leading of a blind man. Harald, moreover, he
said, had been seized in extreme age with the desire of foreign
empire, and was as witless as he was sightless ; wealth could
not satisfy a man who, if he looked to his years, ought to be
well-nigh contented with a grave. The Swedes therefore were
bound to fight for their freedom, their country, and their
children, while the enemy had undertaken the war in rashness
and arrogance. Moreover, on the other side, there were
very few Danes, but a mass of Saxons and other unmanly
peoples stood arrayed. Swedes and Norwegians should there-
fore consider how far the multitude of the North had always
surpassed the Germans and the Sclavs. They should therefore
despise an army which seemed to be composed more of a mass
of fickle offscourings than of a firm and stout soldiery. By
this harangue he kindled high the hearts of the soldiers.
Now Brun, being instructed to form the line on Harald's
behalf, made the front in a wedge, posting Hetha on the right
flank, putting Hakon in command of the left, and making
Wisna standard-bearer. Harald stood up in his chariot and
complained, in as loud a voice as he could, that Ring was
requiting his benefits with wrongs ; that the man who had
got his kingdom by Harald's own gift was now attacking
him ; so that Ring neither pitied an old man nor spared an
uncle, but set his own ambitions before any regard for Harald's
kinship or kindness. So he bade the Danes remember how [262]
they had always won glory by foreign conquest, and how they
were more wont to command their neighbours than to
obey them. He adjured them not to let such glory as theirs
to be shaken by the insolence of a conquered nation, nor to

316 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

suffer the empire, which he had won in the flower of his
youth, to be taken from him in his outworn age.

Then the trumpets sounded, and both sides engaged in battle
with all their strength. The sky seemed to fall suddenly on the
earth, fields and woods to sink into the ground ; all things-
were confounded, and old Chaos come again ; heaven and
earth mingling in one tempestuous turmoil, and the world
rushing to universal ruin.1 For, when the spear-throwing began,
the intolerable clash of arms filled the air with an incredible
thunder. The steam of the wounds suddenly hung a mist over
the sky, the daylight was hidden under the hail of spears.
The help of the slingers was of great use in the battle. But
when the missiles had all been flung from hand or engines,
they fought with swords or iron-shod maces ; and it was now
at close quarters that most blood was spilt. Then the sweat
streamed down their weary bodies, and the clash of the
swords could be heard afar. Here Starkad, who was the
first to set forth the history of this war in the speech of his
country, fought foremost in the fray, and relates that he over-
threw the nobles of Harald, Hun and Elli, Hort and Burgha,2
and cut off' the right hand of Wisna. He also relates that one
Roa, with two others, Gnepie and Gardar, fell wounded by him
in the field. To these he adds the father of Skalk, whose
name is not given. He also declares that he cast Hakon, the
bravest of the Danes, to the earth, but received from him such
a wound in return that he had to leave the war with his
lung protruding from his chest, his neck cleft to the centre, and
his hand deprived of one finger ; so that he long had a gaping
wound, which seemed as if it would never either scar over or
be curable. The same man witnesses that the maiden Wegh-
biorg [Webiorg] fought against the enemy and felled Soth the
champion. While she was threatening to slay more champions,
she was pierced through by an arrow from the bowstring of
Thorkill, a native of Tellemark. For the skilled archers of the
( Jotlanders strung their bows so hard that the shafts pierced

1 Cf. Wolospa and Hdconarmal.

2 Called Hortar and Borrhy on p. 310, above.

BOOK EIOIIT. 317

through even the shields ; nothing proved more murderous ;
for the arrow-points made their way through hauberk and
helmet as if they were men's defenceless bodies. Meantime
Ubbe the Frisian, the readiest of Harald's soldiers, and of
notable bodily stature, slew twenty-five picked champions,
besides eleven whom he had wounded in the field. All these
were of Swedish or Gothic blood. Then he attacked the van-
guard and burst into the thickest of the enemy, driving the [263]
Swedes straggling in panic every way with spear and sword.
It had all but come to a flight, when Hagder [Hadd], Rolder
[Hroald], and Grettir attacked the champion, emulating his
valour, and resolving at their own risk to retrieve the general
ruin. But, fearing to assault him at close quarters, they
accomplished their end with arrows from afar ; and thus Ubbe
was riddled bv a shower of arrows, no one daring to fio-ht him
hand to hand. A hundred and forty-four arrows had pierced
the breast of the warrior before his bodily strength failed and he
bent his knee to the earth. Then at last the Danes suffered
a great defeat, owing to the Thronds and the dwellers in the
province of Dala. For the battle began afresh by reason of the
vast mass of the archers, and nothing damaged our men more.
But when Harald, beinp' now blind with ao-e, heard the
lamentable murmur of his men, he perceived that fortune had
smiled on his enemies. So, as he was riding in a chariot armed
with scythes, he told Brun, who was treacherously acting as
charioteer, to find out in what manner Ring had his line
drawn up. Brun's face relaxed into something of a smile, and
he answered that he was fighting with a line in the form
of a wedge. When the king heard this he began to be
alarmed, and to ask in great astonishment from whom Ring
could have learnt this method of disposing his line, especially
as Odin was the discoverer and imparter of this teaching, and
none but himself had ever learnt from him this new pattern
of warfare. At this Brun was silent, and it came into the
king's mind that here was Odin, and that the god whom he
had once known so well was now disguised in a changeful
shape, in order either to give help or withhold it. Present!}'

318 SAXO GHAMMATICUS.

he began to beseech him earnestly to grant the final victory to
the Danes, since he had helped them so graciously before, and
to nil up his last kindness to the measure of the first ; pro-
mising to dedicate to him as a gift the spirits of all who fell.
But Brun, utterly unmoved by his entreaties, suddenly jerked
the king out of the chariot, battered him to the earth, plucked
the club from him as he fell, whirled it upon his head, and
slew him with his own weapon. Countless corpses lay round
the king's chariot, and the horrid heap overtopped the wheels ;
the pile of carcasses rose as high as the pole. For about 12,000
of the nobles of Ring fell upon the field. But on the side of
Harald about 30,000 nobles fell, not to name the slaughter of
the commons.
[264] When Ring heard that Harald was dead, he gave the signal
to his men to break up their line and cease fighting. Then
under cover of truce he made treaty with the enemy, telling
them that it was vain to prolong the fray without their captain.
Next he told the Swedes to look everywhere among the con-
fused piles of carcasses for the body of Harald, that the corpse
of the king might not wrongfully lack its due rights. So the
populace set eagerly to the task of turning over the bodies of
the slain, and over this work half the day was spent. At last
the body was found with the club, and he thought that propitia-
tion should be made to the shade of Harald. So he harnessed
the horse on which he rode to the chariot of the king, decked it
honourably with a golden saddle, and hallowed it in his honour.
Then he proclaimed his vows, and added his prayer that
Harald would ride on this and outstrip those who shared his
death in their journey to Tartarus ; and that he would pray
Pluto, the lord of Orcus, to grant a calm abode there for friend
and foe. Then he raised a pyre, and bade the Danes fling on
the gilded chariot of their king as fuel to the fire. And
while the flames were burning the body cast upon them, he
went round the mourning nobles and earnestly charged them
that they should freely give arms, gold, and every precious
thing to feed the pyre in honour of so great a king, who had
deserved so nobly of them all. He also ordered that the ashes

BOOK EIGHT. 319

of his body, when it was quite burnt, should be transferred to
an urn, taken to Leire, and there, together with the horse and
armour, receive a royal funeral. By paying these due rites of
honour to his uncle's shade, he won the favour of the Danes,
and turned the hate of his enemies into goodwill. Then the
Danes besought him to appoint Hetha over the remainder of
the realm ; but, that the fallen strength of the enemy might not
suddenly rally, he severed Skaane from the mass of Denmark,
and put it separately under the governorship of Ole, ordering
that only Zealand and the other lands of the realm should be
subject to Hetha. Thus the changes of fortune brought the
empire of Denmark under the Swedish rule. So ended the
Bravic war.

But the Zealanders, who had had Harald for their captain,
and still had the picture of their former fortune hovering
before their minds, thought it shameful to obey the rule of a
woman, and appealed to Ole not to suffer men that had been
used to serve under a famous king to be kept under a woman's
yoke. They also promised to revolt to him if he would take
up arms to remove their ignominious lot. Ole, tempted as
much by the memory of his ancestral glory as by the
homage of the soldiers, was not slow to answer their en-
treaties. So he summoned Hetha, and forced her by threats [265]
rather than by arms to quit every region under her control
except Jutland ; and even Jutland he made a tributary state,
so as not to allow a woman the free control of a kingdom. He
also begot a son whom he named Omund. But he was oiven
to cruelty, and showed himself such an unrighteous kino-, that
all who had found it a shameful thing to be ruled by a
queen now repented of their former scorn. Twelve generals,
whether moved by the disasters of their country, or hating
Ole for some other reason, began to plot against his life.
Among these were Hlenni, Atyl, Thott, and Withne, the last
of whom was a Dane by birth, though he held a govern-
ment among the Sclavs. Moreover, not trusting in their
strength and their cunning to accomplish their deed, they
bribed Starkad to join them. He was prevailed to do the

320 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

deed with the sword ; he undertook the bloody work, and
resolved to attack the king while at the bath. In he went
while the king was washing, but was straightway stricken by
the keenness of his gaze and by the restless and quivering
glare of his eyes. His limbs were palsied with sadden dread ;
he paused, stepped back, and stayed his hand and his purpose.
Thus he who had shattered the arms of so many captains and
champions could not bear the gaze of a single unarmed man.
But Ole, who well knew about his own countenance, covered
his face, and asked him to come closer and tell him what his
message was ; for old fellowship and long- tried friendship
made him the last to suspect treachery. But Starkad drew his
sword, leapt forward, thrust the king through, and struck him
in the throat as he tried to rise. One hundred and twenty
marks of gold were kept for his reward. Soon afterwards he
was smitten with remorse and shame, and lamented his crime so
bitterly, that he could not refrain from tears if it happened
to be named. Thus his soul, when he came to his senses,
blushed for his abominable sin. Moreover, to atone for the
crime he had committed, he slew some of those who had
inspired him to it, thus avenging the act to which he had
lent his hand.

Now the Danes made Omund, the son of Ole, king, thinking
that more heed should be paid to his father's birth than to his
deserts. Omund, when he had grown up, fell in no wise
behind the exploits of his father; for he made it his aim
to equal or surpass the deeds of Ole. At this time a consider-
able tribe of the Northmen [Norwegians] was governed by
[266] Ring, and his daughter Esa's great fame commended her to
Omund, who was looking out for a wife.

But his hopes of wooing her were lessened by the peculiar
inclination of Ring, who desired no son-in-law but one of
tried valour ; for he found as much honour in arms as others
think lies in wealth. Omund therefore, wishing to become
famous in that fashion, and to win the praise of valour,
endeavoured to gain his desire by force, and sailed to Norway
with a fleet, to make an attempt on the throne of Ring under

BOOK EIGHT. 321

plea of hereditary right.1 Odd, the chief of Jather, who
declared that Ring had assuredly seized his inheritance, and
lamented that he harried him with continual wrongs, received
Oinund kindly. Ring, in the meantime, was on a roving raid
in Ireland, so that Omund attacked a province without a
defender. Sparing the goods of the common people, he gave
the private property of Ring over to be plundered, and slew his
kinsfolk ; Odd also having joined his forces to Omund. Now,
among all his divers and manifold deeds, he could never bring
himself to attack an inferior force, remembering that he was the
son of a most valiant father, and that he was bound to fight
armed with courage, and not with numbers. Meanwhile it befell
that Ring was on his return from roving ; and when Omund
heard he was back, he set to and built a vast ship, whence, as
from a fortress, he could rain his missiles on the enemy. To
manage this ship he enlisted Homod and Thole the rowers, the
sons of Atyl the Skanian, one of whom was instructed to act as
steersman, while the other was to command at the prow. Ring
lacked neither skill nor dexterity to encounter them. For he
showed only a small part of his forces, and caused the enemy
to be attacked on the rear. Omund, when told of his strategy
by Odd, sent men to overpower those posted in ambush,
telling Atyl the Skanian to encounter Ring. The order was
executed with more rashness than success ; and Atyl, with his
power defeated and shattered, fled beaten to Skaane. Then
Omund recruited his forces with the help of Odd, and drew up
his fleet to fight on the open sea. Atyl at this time had
true visions of the Norwegian war in his dreams, and started
on his voyage in order to make up for his flight as quickly as
possible, and delighted Oinund by joining him on the eve of
battle. Trusting in his help, Omund began to fight with
equal confidence and success. For, by fighting himself, he
retrieved the victory which he had lost when his servants
were engaged. Ring, wounded to the death, gazed at him
with faint eyes, and, beckoning to him with his hand, as [267]

1 Hereditary right] Omund being, according to Saxo, grandson of
Siward, King of Norway. See p. 301.

:l-2'l SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

well as he could — for his voice failed him — he besought him
to be his son-in-law, saying that he would gladly meet his
end if he left his daughter to such a husband. Before he
could receive an answer, he died. Omund wept for his
death, and gave Homod, whose trusty help he had received
in the war, in marriage to one of the daughters of Ring,
taking the other himself.

At the same time the amazon Rusla, whose prowess in war-
fare exceeded the spirit of a woman, had many fights in
Norway with her brother Thrond for the sovereignty. She
could not endure that Omund should rule over the Norwegians,
and she had declared war against all the subjects of the Danes.
Omund, when he heard of this, commissioned his most active
men to suppress the rising. Rusla conquered them, and,
waxing haughty on her triumph, was seized with overweening
hopes, and bent her mind upon actually acquiring the sove-
reignty of Denmark. She began her attack on the region of
Halland, but was met by Homod and Thole, whom the king
had sent over. Beaten, she retreated to her fleet, of which
only thirty ships managed to escape, the rest being taken by
the enemy. Thrond encountered his sister as she was eluding
the Danes, but was conquered by her and stripped of his
entire army; he fled over the Dovrefjeld without a single
companion. Thus she, who had first yielded before the Danes,
soon overcame her brother, and turned her flight into a victory.
When Omund heard of this, he went back to Norway with a
great fleet, first sending Homod and Thole by a short and
secret way to rouse the people of Tell em ark against the rule
of Rusla. The end was that she was driven out of her
kingdom by the commons, fled to the isles for safety, and
turned her back, without a blow, upon the Danes as they came
up. The king pursued her hotly, caught up her fleet on the
sea, and utterly destroyed it : the enemy suffered mightily,
and he won a bloodless victory and splendid spoils. But
Rusla escaped with a very few ships, and rowed ploughing
therwaves furiously ; but, while she was avoiding the Danes, she
met her brother and was killed. So much more effectual for

liOOK EIGHT. 323

harm are dangers unsurmised ; and chance sometimes makes
the less alarming evil worse than that which threatens. The
king gave Thrond a governorship for slaying his sister, put
the rest under tribute, and returned home.

At this time Thorias [?] and Ber [Biorn], the most active of
the soldiers of Rusla, were roving in Ireland ; but when they [268]
heard of the death of their mistress, whom they had long ago
sworn to avenge, they hotly attacked Omund, and challenged
him to a duel, which it used to be accounted shameful for
a king to refuse ; for the fame of princes of old was reckoned
more by arms than by riches. So Homod and Thole came
forward, offering to meet in battle the men who had dial-
lenged the king. Omund praised them warmly, but at first
declined for very shame to allow their help. At last, hard
besought by his people, he brought himself to try his fortune
by the hand of another. We are told that Ber fell in this
combat, while Thorias left the battle severely wounded. The
king, having first cured him of his wounds, took him into his
service, and made him prince [earl] over Norway. Then
he sent ambassadors to exact the usual tribute from the
Sclavs ; these were killed, and he was even attacked in
Jutland by a Sclavish force ; but he overcame seven kings in
a single combat, and ratified by conquest his accustomed right
to tribute.

Meantime Starkad, who was now worn out with extreme acre,
and who seemed to be past military service and the calling of
a champion, was loth to lose his ancient glory through the
fault of eld, and thought it would be a noble thing if he could
make a voluntary end, and hasten his death by his own free-
will. Having so often fought nobly, he thought it would be
mean to die a bloodless death ; and, wishing to enhance the
glory of his past life by the lustre of his end, he preferred to
be slain by some man of gallant birth rather than await the
tardy shaft of nature. So shameful was it thought that men
devoted to war should die by disease. His body was weak,
and his eyes could not see clearl}7, so that he hated to linger
any more in life. In order to buy himself an executioner, he

Y 2

324 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

wore hanging on his neck the gold which he had earned for
the murder of Ole ; thinking there was no fitter way of atoning
for the treason he had done than to make the price of Ole's
death that of his own also, and to spend on the loss of his
own life what he had earned b}^ the slaying of another.
This, he thought, would be the noblest use he could make of
that shameful price. So he girded him with two swords, and
guided his powerless steps leaning on two staves. One of the
common people, when he saw him, thinking two swords
superfluous for the use of an old man, mockingly asked him
[269] to make him a present of one of them. Starkad, holding
out hopes of consent, bade him come nearer, drew the
sword from his side, and ran him through. This was seen
by a certain Hather, whose father Hlenne Starkad had once
killed in repentance for his own impious crime.1 Hather
was hunting game with his dogs, but now gave over the
chase, and bade two of his companions spur their horses hard
and charge at the old man to frighten him. They galloped
forward, and tried to make off, but were stopped b}^ the
staves of Starkad, and paid for it with their lives. Hather,
terrified by the sight, galloped up closer, and saw who the
old man was, but without being recognised by him in turn ;
and asked him if he would like to exchange his sword
for a carriage. Starkad replied that he used in old days to
chastise jeerers, and that the insolent had never insulted him
unpunished. But his sightless eyes could not recognise the
features of the youth ; so he composed a song, wherein he
should declare the greatness of his anger, as follows :

" As the unreturning waters sweep down the channel ; so, as
the years run by, the life of man flows on never to come back ;
fast gallops the cycle of doom, child of old age who shall make
an end of all. Old age smites alike the eyes and the steps
of men, robs the warrior of his speech and soul, tarnishes
his fame by slow degrees, and wipes out his deeds of honour.

1 Own impious crime] parricidii, namely, the murder of his king, Ole.
Hlenni was one of the conspirators that suborned Starkad, who took this
way of showing " repentance".

BOOK EIGHT. 325

It seizes his failing limbs, chokes his panting utterance, and
numbs his nimble wit. When a cough is taken, when the skin
itches with the scab, and the teetli are numb and hollow, and the
stomach turns squeamish, — then old age banishes the grace of
youth, covers the complexion with decay, and sows many a
wrinkle in the dusky skin. Old age crushes noble arts, brings
down the memorials of men of old, and scorches ancient
glories up ; shatters wealth, hungrily gnaws away the worth
and good of virtue, turns athwart and disorders all things.

" I myself have felt the hurtful power of injurious age, I,
dim-sighted, and hoarse in my tones and in my chest ; and
all helpful things have turned to my hurt. Now my body is
less nimble, and I prop it up, leaning my faint limbs on the
support of staves. Sightless I guide my steps with two [270]
sticks, and follow the short path which the rod shows me,
trusting more in the leading of a stock than in my eyes.
None takes any charge of me, and no man in the ranks brings
comfort to the veteran, unless, perchance, Hather is here, and
succours his shattered friend. Whomsoever Hather once thinks
worthy of his duteous love, that man he attends continually
with even zeal, constant to his purpose, and fearing to break his
early ties. He also often pays fit rewards to those that have
deserved well in war, and fosters their courage ; he bestows
dignities on the brave, and honours his famous friends with
gifts. Free with his wealth, he is fain to increase with
bounty the brightness of his name, and to surpass many of
the mighty. Nor is he less in war : his strength is equal to
his goodness ; he is swift in the fray, slow to waver, ready to
give battle ; and he cannot turn his back when the foe
bears him hard. But for me, if I remember right, fate ap-
pointed at my birth that wars I should follow and in war I
should die, that I should mix in broils, watch in arms, and
pass a life of bloodshed. I was a man of camps, and rested
not ; hating peace, I grew old under thy standard, 0 War-god,
in utmost peril ; conquering fear, I thought it comely to
fight, shameful to loiter, and noble to kill and kill again, to
be for ever slaughtering ! Oft have I seen the stern kings meet

326 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

in war, seen shield and helmet bruised, and the fields redden
with blood, and the cuirass broken by the spear-point, and the
corslets all around giving at the thrust of the steel, and the wild
beasts battening on the unburied soldier. Here, as it chanced,
one that attempted a mighty thing, a strong-handed warrior,
fighting against the press of the foe, smote through the mail
that covered my head, pierced my helmet, and plunged his
blade into my crest. This sword also hath often been driven
by my right hand in war, and, once unsheathed, hath cleft the
skin and bitten into the skull."

Hather, in answer, sang as follows :

" Whence comest thou, who art used to write the poems
of thy land, leaning thy wavering steps on a frail staff? Or
whither dost thou speed, who art the readiest bard of the
[271] Danish muse? All the glory of thy great strength is faded
and lost ; the hue is banished from thy face, the joy is gone
out of thy soul ; the voice has left thy throat, and is hoarse
and dull ; thy body has lost its , former stature ; the decay of
death begins, and has wasted thy features and thy force. As
a ship wearies, buffeted by continual billows, even so old
age, gendered by a long course of years, brings forth bitter
death ; and the life falls when its strength is done, and suffers
the loss of its ancient lot. Famous old man, who has told
thee that thou mayst not duly follow the sports of youth, or
fling balls, or bite and eat the nut ? I think it were better
for thee now to sell thy sword, and buy a carriage wherein to
ride often, or a horse easy on the bit, or at the same cost to
purchase a light car. It will be more fitting for beasts of
burden to carry weak old men, when their steps fail them ;
the wheel, driving round and round, serves for him whose foot
totters feebly. But if perchance thou art loth to sell the
useless steel, thy sword, if it be not for sale, shall be taken
from thee and shall slay thee."

Starkad answered : " Wretch, thy glib lips scatter idle
words, unfit for the ears of the good. Why seek the gifts to
reward that guidance, which thou shouldst have offered for
naught ? Surely I will walk afoot, and will not basely give

BOOK EIGHT. 327

up my sword and buy the help of a stranger ; nature has given
me the right of passage, and hath bidden me trust in my own
feet. Why mock and jeer with insolent speech at him whom
thou shouldst have offered to guide upon his way ? Why give
to dishonour my deeds of old, which deserve the memorial of
fame ? Why requite my service with reproach ? Why pur-
sue with jeers the old man mighty in batt]e, and put to shame
my unsurpassed honours and illustrious deeds, belittling my
glories and girding at my prowess ? For what valour of thine
dost thou demand my sword, which thy strength does not
deserve ? It befits not the right hand or the unwarlike side
of a herdsman, who is wont to make his peasant-music on the
pipe, to see to the flock, to keep the herds in the fields.
Surely among the henchmen, close to the greasy pot, thou
dippest thy crust in the bubbles of the foaming pan, drenching [272]
a meagre slice in the rich, oily fat, and stealthily, with thirsty
finger, licking the warm juice ; more skilled to spread thy
accustomed cloak1 on the ashes, to sleep on the hearth, and
slumber all day long, and go busily about the work of the
reeking kitchen, than to make the brave blood flow with thy
shafts in war. Men think thee a hater of the light and a lover
of a filthy hole, a wretched slave of thy belly, like a whelp
who licks the coarse grain, husk and all.

" By heaven, thou didst not try to rob me of my sword
when thrice at great peril2 I fought [for ?] the son of Ole.
For truly, in that array, my hand either broke the sword or
shattered the obstacle, so heavy was the blow of the smiter.
What of the day when I first taught them to run
with wood-shod feet over the shore of the Kurlanders,3 and

1 Cloak] pallam, the emendation of St. for the gallam of ed. pr.

2 When thrice at great peril . . . .] quando ter Olonis sum.mo discrimine
nati Expugnator eram. Nothing has been said about Starkad fighting
Omund, and the passage gives no satisfactory meaning. If nati is to be
ptcp. agreeing with Olonis, summo discrimine must qualify it as adverb,
which gives no sense. M. thinks Expugnator Olonis could mean qui sub
auspiciis Olonis alios expugnat, which is hard.

3 Kurlanders] See Bk. vi for these and most of the following deeds
of Starkad.

328 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the path bestrewn with countless points ? For when I was
going to the fields studded with calthrops, I guarded their
wounded feet with clogs below them. After this I slew
Hame, who fought me mightily; and soon, with the captain
Rin the son of Flebak, I crushed the Kurlanders, yea, or all
the tribes Esthonia breeds, and thy peoples, 0 Semgala! Then
I attacked the men of Tellemark, and took thence my head
bloody with bruises, shattered with mallets, and smitten with
the welded weapons. Here first I learnt how strong was the
iron wrought on the anvil, or what valour the common people1
had. Also it was my doing that the Teutons were punished,
when, in avenging my lord, I laid low over their cups thy sons,
O Swerting, who were guilty of the wicked slaughter of Frode.

" Not less was the deed when, for the sake of a beloved
maiden. I slew seven brethren in one fray ; — witness the spot,
which was consumed by the bowels that left me, and brings not
forth the grain anew on its scorched sod. And soon, when
Ker the captain made ready a war by sea, with a noble army
we beat his serried ships. Then I put Waske to death,
and punished the insolent smith by slashing his hinder parts;
and with the sword I slew Wisin, who from the snowy rocks
blunted the spears. Then I slew the four sons of Ler, and the
[27;] champions of Permland ; and then having taken the chief
of the Irish race, I rifled the wealth of Dublin ; and our
courage shall ever remain manifest by the trophies of Bravalla.
Why do I linger ? Countless are the deeds of my bravery, and
when I review the works of my hands I fail to number them
to the full. The whole is greater than I can tell. My work
is too great for fame, and speech serves not for my doings."

So sang Starkad. At last, when he found by their talk that
Hather was the son of Hlenne, and saw that the youth was of
illustrious birth, he offered him his throat to smite, bidding him
not to shrink from punishing the slayer of his father. He

1 Common people] popvlaribus, "namely, plebs rusbiea" (M.). See the
r|»isode of the low-born smith, p. 237 above: "I remember how

iths differ, for they once smote me." Starkad, besides being a poet,
a Spartan, and a hero, is always an aristocrat.

BOOK EIGHT. 329

promised him that if he did so he should possess the gold
which he had himself received from Hlenne. And to enrage
his heart more vehemently against him, he is said to have
harangued him as follows :

" Moreover, Hather, I robbed thee of thy father Hlenne ; re-
quite me this, I pray, and strike down the old man who longs
to die ; aim at my throat with the avenging steel. For my
soul chooses the service of a noble smiter, and shrinks to ask
its doom at a coward's hand. Righteously may a man choose
to forestall the ordinance of doom. What cannot be escaped
it will be lawful also to anticipate. The fresh tree must be
fostered, the old one hewn down. He is nature's instrument
who destroys what is near its doom and strikes down what
cannot stand. Death is best when it is sought : and when the
end is loved, life is wearisome. Let not the troubles of age
prolong a miserable lot."

So saying, he took money from his pouch and gave it him.
But Hather, desiring as much to enjoy the gold as to accomplish
vengeance for his father, promised that he would comply with
his prayer, and would not refuse the reward. Starkad eagerly
handed him the sword, and at once stooped his neck beneath
it, counselling him not to do the smiter's work timidly, or
use the sword like a woman ; and telling him that if, when
he had killed him, he could spring between the head and
the trunk before the corpse fell, he would be rendered proof
against arms. It is not known whether he said this in order [274]
to instruct his executioner or to punish him, for perhaps, as he
leapt, the bulk of the huge body would have crushed him.
So Hather smote sharply with the sword and hacked off the
head of the old man. When the severed head struck the
ground, it is said to have bitten the earth ; thus the fury of
the dying lips declared the fierceness of the soul. But the
smiter, thinking that the promise hid some treachery, warily
refrained from leaping. Had he done so rashly, perhaps he
would have been crushed by the corpse as it fell, and have
paid with his own life for the old man's murder. But he
would not allow so great a champion to lie unsepulchred, and

330 SAXO GRAMMATICrS.

had his body buried in the field that is commonly called
Rdlung.1

Now Omund, as I have heard, died most tranquilly, while
peace was unbroken, leaving two sons and two daughters.
The eldest of these, Si ward, came to the throne by right of
birth, while his brother Budle was still of tender years. At
this time Gotar, King of the Swedes, conceived boundless love
for one of the daughters of Omund, because of the report of
her extraordinary beauty, and entrusted one Ebb, the son of
Sibb, with the commission of asking for the maiden. Ebb
did his work skilfully, and brought back the good news that
the girl had consented. Nothing was now lacking to Gotar's
wishes but the wedding ; but, as he feared to hold this among
strangers, he demanded that his betrothed should be sent to
him in charge of Ebb, whom he had before used as envoy.

Ebb was crossing Halland with a very small escort, and went
for a night's lodging to a country farm, where the dwellings
of two brothers faced one another on the two sides of a
liver. Now these men used to receive folk hospitably and
then murder them, but were skilful to hide their brigandage
under a show of generosity. For they had hung on certain
hidden chains, in a lofty part of the house, an oblong beam
like a press, and furnished with a steel point ; they used to
lower this in the night by letting down the fastenings, and
cut off the heads of those that lay below. Many had they be-
headed in this way with the hanging mass. So when Ebb and
his men had been feasted abundantly, the servants laid them
out a bed near the hearth, so that by the swing of the treacher-
ous beam they might mow oft' their heads, which faced the
fire. When they departed, Ebb, suspecting the contrivance
slung overhead, told his men to feign slumber and shift their
bodies, savin- that it would be very wholesome for them to
change their place. Now among these were some not of the
[275] following of Ebb, who despised the orders which the others
obeyed, and lav unmoved, each in the spot where he had
chanced to lie down. Then towards the mirk of night the

1 K<ilung] See p. 240.

BOOK EIGHT. 331

heavy hanging machine was set in motion by the doers of
the treachery. Loosened from the knots of its fastening, it
fell violently on the ground, and slew those beneath it.
Thereupon those who had the charge of committing the crime
brought in a light, that they might learn clearly what had
happened, and saw that Ebb, on whose especial account they
had undertaken the affair, had wisely been equal to the danger.
He straightway set on them and punished them with death ;
and also, after losing his men in the mutual slaughter, he
happened fo find a vessel, crossed a river full of blocks of ice,
and announced to Gotar the result, not so much of his mission
as of his mishap.

Gotar judged that this affair had been inspired by Siward,
and prepared to avenge his wrongs by arms. Siward, defeated
by him in Halland, retreated into Jutland, the enemy having
taken his sister. Here he conquered the common people of
the Sclavs, who ventured to tight without a leader ; and he
won as much honour from this victory as he had got disgrace
by his flight. But a little afterwards, the men whom he had
subdued when they were ungeneralled, found a general and
defeated Siward in Funen. Several times he fought them in
Jutland, but with ill-success. The result was that he lost
both Skaane and Jutland, and only retained the middle of his
realm without the head, like the fragments of some body that
had been consumed away. His son Jarmerik [Eormunrec], with
his child-sisters, fell into the hands of the enemy ; one of these
was sold to the Germans, the other to the Norwegians ; for
in old time marriages were matters of purchase. Thus the
kingdom of the Danes, which had been enlarged with such
valour, made famous by such ancestral honours, and enriched
by so many conquests, fell, all by the sloth of one man, from the
most illustrious fortune and prosperity into such disgrace that
it paid the tribute which it used to exact. But Siward, too
often defeated and guilty of shameful flights, could not endure,
after that glorious past, to hold the troubled helm of state any
longer in this shameful condition of his land ; and, fearing
that living longer might strip him of his last shred of

332 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

glory, he hastened to win an honourable death in battle. For
[276] his soul could not forget his calamity, it was fain to cast
off its sickness, and was racked with weariness of life. So
n inch did he abhor the light of life in his longing to wipe out
his shame. 80 he mustered his army for battle, and openly
declared war with one Simon, who was governor of Skaane
under Gotar. This war he pursued with stubborn rashness ; he
slew Simon, and ended his own life amid a great slaughter of
his foes. Yet his country could not be freed from the burden
of the tribute.

Jarmerik, meantime, with his foster-brother of the same
age as himself, Gunn, was living in prison, in charge of Ismar,
the King of the Sclavs. At last he was taken out and put to
agriculture, doing the work of a peasant. So actively did he
manage this matter that he was transferred and made master
of the royal slaves. As he likewise did this business most
uprightly, he was enrolled in the band of the king's retainers.
Here he bore himself most pleasantly as courtiers use, and was
soon taken into the number of the king's friends and obtained
the first place in his intimacy ; thus, on the strength of a
series of great services, he passed from the lowest estate to
the most distinguished height of honour. Also, loth to live
a slack and enfeebled youth, he trained himself to the pursuits
of war, enriching his natural gifts by diligence. All men
loved Jarmerik, and only the queen mistrusted the young
man's temper. A sudden report told them that the king's
brother had died. Ismar, wishing to give his body a splendid
funeral, prepared a banquet of royal bounty to increase the
splendour of the obsequies. But Jarmerik, who used a.
other times to look after the household affairs together with
the queen, began to cast about for means of escape ; for a
chance seemed to be offered by the absence of the king. For
li«' saw that even in the lap of riches he would be the wretched
thrall of a king, and that he would draw, as it were, his very
breath on sufferance and at the gift of another. Moreover,
though he held the highest offices with the king, he thought that
freed. »in was Letter than delights, and burned with a mighty
desi re to visit his country and learn his lineage. But, knowing

BOOK EIGHT. 333

that the queen had provided sufficient guards to see that no
prisoner escaped, he saw that he must approach by craft where
he could not arrive by force. So he plaited one of those baskets
of rushes and withies, shaped like a man, with which country-
men used to scare the birds from the corn, and put a live dog-
in it ; then he took off his own clothes, and dressed it in them,
to give a more plausible likeness to a human being. Then he
broke into the private treasury of the king, took out the money,
and hid himself in places of which he alone knew. Mean- [277]
time Gunn, whom he had told to conceal the absence of his
friend,1 took the basket into the palace and stirred up the dog
to bark ; and when the queen asked what this was, he answered
that Jarmerik was out of his mind and hoAvling. She, behold-
ing the effigy, was deceived by the likeness, and ordered that
the madman should be cast out of the house. Then Gunn
took the effigy out and put it to bed, as though it were his
distraught friend. But towards night he plied the watch
bountifully with wine and festal mirth, cut off their heads as
they slept, and set them at their groins, in order to make their
slaying more shameful. The queen, roused by the din, and
wishing to learn the reason of it, hastily rushed to the doors.
But while she unwarily put forth her head, the sword of Gunn
suddenly pierced her through. Feeling a mortal wound, she
sank, turned her eyes on her murderer, and said, " Had it been
granted me to live unscathed, no screen of treachery should
have let thee leave this land unpunished." A flood of such
threats against her slayer poured from her dying lips. Then
Jarmerik, together with Gunn, the partner of his noble deed,
secretly set fire to the tent wherein the king was celebrating
with a banquet the obsequies of his brother ; all the company
were overcome with liquor. The fire filled the tent and spread
all about; and some of them, shaking off the torpor of drink,
took horse and pursued those who had endangered them.
But the young men fled at first on the beasts they had taken ;
and at last, when these were exhausted with their long gallop,
took to flight on foot. They were all but caught, when a

1 Friend] abseiUiam socii sirrmlare. Mr. Fiddes suggests reading dis-
simvlare, unless simvla/re be loosely used.

334 SAXO GRAMMAT1CUS.

river saved them. For they crossed a bridge, of which, in
order to delay the pursuer, they first cut the timbers down to
the middle, thus making it not only unequal to a burden, but
ready to come down ; then they retreated into a dense
morass. The Sclavs pressed on them, and, not foreseeing
the danger, unwarily put the weight of their horses on the
bridge ; the flooring sank, and they were shaken off and flung
into the river. But, as they swam up to the bank, they were
met by Gunn and Jarmerik, and either drowned or slain.
Thus the young men showed great cunning, and did a deed
beyond their years, being more like sagacious old men than
runaway .slaves, and successfully achieving their shrewd design.
When they reached the strand they seized a vessel chance
threw in their way, and made for the deep. The barbarians
who pursued them, tried, when they saw them sailing off,
to bring them back by shouting promises after them that they
should be kings if they returned ; " for, by the public statute
of the ancients, the succession was appointed to the slayers of
[278] the kings." As they retreated, their ears were long deafened
by the Sclavs obstinately shouting their treacherous promises.1
At this time Budle, the brother of Siward, was Regent
over the Danes, who forced him to make over the kingdom to
Jarmerik when he came ; so that Budle fell from a king into
a common man. At the same time Gotar charged Sibb with
debauching his sister, and slew him. Sibb's kindred, much
angered by his death, came wailing to Jarmerik, and promised
to attack Gotar with him, in order to avenge their kinsman.
They kept their promise well, for Jarmerik, having over-
thrown Gotar by their help, gained Sweden. Thus, holding
the sovereignty of both nations, he was encouraged by his
increased power to attack the Sclavs, forty of whom he took
and hung with a wolf tied to each of them. This kind of
punishment was assigned of old to those who slew their own
kindred; but lie chose to inflict it upon enemies, that all
might see plainly, just from their fellowship with ruthless
beasts, how grasping they had shown themselves towards the

1 A good case of "thigh-forking", with false reasons, and of Mr. Frazer's
Nomi-rites.

J^ook ElGHf. 33o

Danes. Also, when he had conquered the country, he posted
garrisons in fitting places. Departing thence, he made a
slaughter of the Serabs and the Kurlanclers, and many nations
of the East. The Sclavs, thinking that this employment of
the king gave them a chance of revolting, killed the governors
whom he had appointed, and ravaged Denmark. Jarmerik,
on his way back from roving, chanced to intercept their
fleet, and destroyed it, a deed which added honour to his
roll of conquests. He also put their nobles to death in a way
that one would weep to see ; namely, by first passing thongs
through their legs, and then tying them to the hoofs of savage
bulls ; then hounds set on them and dragged them into miry
swamps. This deed took the edge off the valour of the Sclavs,
and they obeyed the authority of the king in fear and
trembling. Jarmerik, being thus enriched with the spoils of
many nations, wished to provide a safe storehouse for his
booty, and built on a lofty hill a treasure-house of marvellous
handiwork. Gathering sods, he raised a mound, laying a mass
of rocks for the foundation, and girt the lower part with a
rampart, the centre with rooms, and the top with battlements.
All round he posted a line of sentries without a break. Four
huo-e crates gave free access on the four sides ; and into this
lordly mansion he heaped all his splendid riches. Having
thus settled his affairs at home, he again turned his ambition
abroad. He began to voyage, and speedily fought a naval
battle with four brothers whom he met on the high seas,
Hellespontines1 by race, and veteran rovers. After this battle [279]
had lasted three days, he ceased righting, having bargained
for their sister and half the tribute which they had imposed
on those they had conquered.

After this, Bikk, the son of the King of the Livonians,
escaped from the captivity in which he lay under these said
brothers, and went to Jarmerik. But he did not forget his
wrongs, Jarmerik having long before deprived him of his own
brothers. He was received kindly by the king, in all whose
secret counsels he soon came to have a notable voice ; and, as

1 Hellespontines] See notes on pp. 15, 30.

336 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

soon as be found the king pliable to his advice in all things,
he led him, when his counsel was asked, into the most
abominable acts, and drove him to commit crimes and infamies.

Tims he sought some device to injure the king by a feint of
loyalty, and tried above all to steel him against his nearest of
blood ; attempting to accomplish the revenge of his brother
by guile, since he could not by force. So it came to pass that
the king embraced filthy vices instead of virtues, and made
himself generally hated by the cruel deeds which he committed
at the instance of his treacherous adviser. Even the Sclavs
began to rise against him ; and, as a means of quelling them, he
captured their leaders, passed a rope through their shanks,
and delivered them to be torn asunder by horses pulling
different ways. So perished their chief men, punished for
their stubbornness of spirit by having their bodies rent apart.
This kept the Sclavs duly obedient in unbroken and steady
subjugation.

Meantime, the sons of Jarmerik's sister, who had all been
born and bred in Germany, took up arms, on the strength of
their grandsire's title, against their uncle, contending that they
had as good a right to the throne as he. The king demolished
their strongholds in Germany with engines, blockaded or took
several towns, and returned home with a bloodless victory. The
Hellespontines came to meet him, proffering their sister for
the promised marriage. After this had been celebrated, at
Bikk's prompting he again went to Germany, took his nephews
in war, and incontinently hanged them. He also got together
the chief men under the pretence of a banquet and had them
put to death in the same fashion.

Meantime, the king appointed Broder, his son by another
marriage, to have charge over his stepmother, a duty which
he fulfilled with full vigilance and integrity. But Bikk
accused this man to his father of incest; and, to conceal the
falsehood of the charge, suborned witnesses against him. When
[280] the plea of the accusation had been fully declared, Broder
could not bring any support for his defence, and his father
bade his friends pass sentence upon the convicted man, think-

BOOK EIGHT. 337

ing it less impious to commit the punishment proper for
his son to the judgment of others. All thought that he
deserved outlawry except Bikk, who did not shrink from
giving a more terrible vote against his life, and declaring
that the perpetrator of an infamous seduction ought to be
punished with hanging. But lest any should think that
this punishment was due to the cruelty of his father, Bikk
judged that, when he had been put in the noose, the servants
should hold him up on a beam put beneath him, so that, when
weariness made them take their hands from the burden,
they might be as good as guilty of the young man's death,
and by their own fault exonerate the king from an unnatural
murder. He also pretended that, unless the accused were
punished, he would plot against his father's life. The
adulteress Swanhild, he said, ought to suffer a shameful end,
trampled under the hoofs of beasts. The king yielded to
Bikk ; and, when his son was taken to be hanged, he made
the bystanders hold him up by means of a plank, that he
might not be choked. Thus his throat was only a little
squeezed, the knot was harmless, and it was but a punishment
in show. But the king had the queen tied very tight on
the ground, and delivered her to be crushed under the hoofs
of horses. The story goes that she was so beautiful, that even
the beasts shrank from mangling limbs so lovely with their
filthy feet. The king, divining that this proclaimed the
innocence of his wife, began to repent of his error, and hastened
to release the slandered lady. But meantime Bikk rushed up,
declaring that when she was on her back she held off the
beasts by awful charms, and could only be crushed if she lay
on her face ; for he knew that her beauty saved her.1 When
the body of the queen was placed in this manner, the herd of
beasts was driven upon it, and trod it down deep with their
multitude of feet. Such was the end of Swanhild. Meantime
the favourite dog of Broder came to the king making a sort
of moan, and seemed to bewail its master's punishment ; and
his hawk, when it was brought in, began to pluck out its

1 Cf. Old Hamtheow Lay, 0. P. B. i. 52.

:W8 saxo GRAJMMATICUS.

breast-feathers with its beak. The king took its nakedness as
an omen of his bereavement, to frustrate which he quickly
sent men to take his son down from the noose : for he divined
by the featherless bird that he would be childless unless he
took good heed. Thus Broder was freed from death, and
Bikk, fearing he would pay the penalty of an informer, went
and told the men of the Hellespont that Swanhild had been
abominably slain by her husband. When they set sail to
[281] avenge their sister, he came back to Jarmerik, and told him
that the Hellespontines were preparing war. The king
thought that it would be safer to fiffht with walls than in the
field, and retreated into the stronghold which he had built.
To stand the siege, he filled its inner parts with stores, and its
battlements with men-at-arms. Targets and shields flashing
with gold were hung round and adorned the topmost circle of
the building. Now it happened that the Hellespontines,
before sharing their booty, accused a great band of their men
of embezzling, and put them to death. Having now de-
stroyed so large a part of their forces by internecine slaughter,
they thought that their strength was not equal to storming the
palace, and consulted a sorceress named Gudrun. She brought
it to pass that the defenders of the king's side were suddenly
blinded and turned their arms against one another. When the
Hellespontines saw this, they brought up a shield-mantlet, and
seized the approaches of the gates. Then they tore up the
posts, burst into the building, and hewed down the blinded
ranks of the enemy. In this uproar Odin appeared, and,
making for the thick of the ranks of the fighters, restored
by his divine power to the Danes that vision which they had
lost by sleights ; for he ever cherished them with fatherly love.
He instructed them to shower stones to batter the Hellespon-
tines, who used spells to harden their bodies against weapons.
Thus both companies slew one another and perished. Jarmerik
lost both feet and both hands, and his trunk was rolled aniono-
the dead.1 Broder, little fit for it, followed him as king.

1 See Jordanis De Rebus Geticis, c. 22-24 ; founded on Ablavius
1'iiseu.s and (hosius.

HOOK EIGHT. 339

The next king was SlWALD. His son Snio took vigorously
to roving in his father's old age, and not only preserved the
fortunes of his country, but even restored them, lessened as
the}' were, to their former estate. Likewise, when he came to
the sovereignty, he crushed the insolence of the champions
Eskil and Alkil, and by this conquest reunited to his country
Skaane, which had been severed from the general juris-
diction of Denmark. At last he conceived a passion for the
daughter of the King of the Goths ; it was returned, and he
sent secret messengers to seek a chance of meeting her.
These men were intercepted by the father of the damsel and
hanged : thus paying dearly for their rash mission. Snio, wish-
ing to avenge their death, invaded Gothland. Its king met
him with his forces, and the aforesaid champions challenged
him to send strong men to fight. Snio laid down as condition
of the duel, that each of the two kings should either lose his
own empire or gain that of the other, according to the fortune
of the champions, and that the kingdom of the conquered
should be staked as the prize of the victory. The result was [282]
that the King of the Goths was beaten by reason of the ill-
success of his defenders, and had to quit his kingdom for the
Danes. Snio, learning that this king's daughter had been
taken away at the instance of her father to wed the King of
the Swedes, sent a man clad in ragged attire, who used to ask
alms on the public roads, to try her mind. And while he lay,
as beggars do, by the threshold, he chanced to see the queen,
and whined in a weak voice, " Snio loves thee." She feigned
not to have heard the sound that stole on her ears, and neither
looked nor stepped back, but went on to the palace, then re-
turned straightway, and said in a low whisper, which scarcely
reached his ears, " I love him who loves me" ; and having said
this she walked away. The beggar rejoiced that she had
returned a word of love, and, as he sat on the next day at the
gate, when the queen came up, he said, briefly as ever, "Wishes
should have a tryst." Again she shrewdly caught his cunning
speech, and passed on, dissembling wholly. A little later she
passed by her questioner, and said that she would shortly go
to Bocheror; for this was the spot to which she meant to flee.

;J40 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

And when the beggar heard this, he insisted, with his wonted
slnvwd questions, upon being told a fitting time for the tryst.
The woman was as cunning as he, and as little clear of speech,
and named as quickly as she could the beginning of the winter.
Now her train, who had caught a flying word of this love-
message, took her great cleverness for the raving of utter folly.
And when Snio had been told all this by the beggar, he con-
trived to carry the queen off in a vessel ; for she got away
under pretence of bathing, and took her husband's treasures.
After this there were constant wars between Snio and the
Kino- of Sweden, whereof the issue was doubtful and the
victory changeful ; the one king seeking to regain his lawful,
the other to keep his unlawful love.

At this time the yield of crops was ruined by most inclem-
ent weather, and a mighty dearth of corn befell. Victuals began
to be scarce, and the commons were distressed with famine, so
that the king, anxiously pondering how to relieve the hard-
ness of the times, and seeing that the thirsty spent somewhat
more than the hungry, introduced thrift among the people.
He abolished drinking-bouts, and decreed that no drink should
be prepared from grain, thinking that the bitter famine should
be got rid of by prohibiting needless drinking, and that
plentiful food could be levied as a loan on thirst.

Then a certain wanton slave of his belly, lamenting the pro-
hibition against drink, adopted a deep kind of knavery, and
found a new way to indulge his desires. He broke the public
law of temperance by his own excess, contriving to get at what
he loved by a device both cunning and absurd. For he sipped
the forbidden liquor drop by drop, and so satisfied his longing
to be tipsy. When he was summoned for this by the king,
[283] he declared that there was no stricter observer of sobriety
tli an he, inasmuch as he mortified his longing to quaff
deep by this device for moderate drinking. He persisted
in the fault with which he was taxed, saying that he only
sucked. At last he was also menaced with threats, and
forbidden not only to drink, but even to sip; yet he could
not check his habits. For in order to enjoy the unlaw-

BOOK EIGHT. 341

ful thing in a lawful way, and not to have his throat subject
to the command of another, he sopped morsels of bread in
liquor, and fed on the pieces thus soaked with drink ; tasting
slowly, so as to prolong the desired debauch, and attaining,
though in no unlawful manner, the forbidden measure of
satiety. Thus his stubborn and frantic intemperance risked
his life, all for luxury ; and, undeterred even by the threats
of the king, he fortified his rash appetite to despise every
peril. A second time he was summoned by the king on
the charge of disobeying his regulation, Yet he did not
even then cease to defend his act, but maintained that he
had in no wise contravened the royal decree, and that the
temperance prescribed by the ordinance had been in no way
violated by that which allured him ; especially as the thrift
ordered in the law of plain living was so described, that it
was apparently forbidden to drink liquor, but not to eat it.
Then the king called heaven to witness, and swore by the
general good, that if he ventured on any such thing hereafter
he would punish him with death. But the man thought that
death was not so bad as temperance, and that it was easier to
quit life than luxury ; and he again boiled the grain in
water, and then fermented the liquor ; whereupon, despairing
of any further plea to excuse his appetite, he openly indulged
in drink, and turned to his cups again unabashed. Giving
up cunning for effrontery, he chose rather to await the punish-
ment of the king than to turn sober. Therefore, when the
king asked him why he had so often made free to use the
forbidden thing, he said :

" 0 king, this craving is begotten, not so much of my thirst,
as of my goodwill towards thee ! For I remembered that the
funeral rites of a king must be paid with a drinking-bout.
Therefore, led by good judgment more than the desire to swill, [ 284
I have, by mixing the forbidden liquid, taken care that the
feast whereat thy obsequies are performed should not, by
reason of the scarcity of corn, lack the due and customary
drinking. Now I do not doubt that thou wilt perish of famine
before the rest, and be the first to need a tomb ; for thou hast

312 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

passed this strange law of thrift in fear that thou wilt be
thyself the first to lack food. Thou art thinking for thyself,
and not for others, when thou bringest thyself to start such
strange miserly ways."

This witty quibbling turned the anger of the king into
shame: and when he saw that his ordinance for the general
good came home in mockery to himself, he thought no more of
the public profit, but revoked the edict, relaxing his purpose
sooner than anger his subjects.

Whether it was that the soil had too little rain, or that it
was too hard baked, the crops, as I have said, were slack, and
the fields gave but little produce; so that the land lacked
victual, and was worn with a weary famine. The stock of food
began to fail, and no help was left to stave off hunger. Then,
at the proposal of Agg and of Ebb, it was provided by a decree
of the people that the old men and the tiny children should be
slain : that all who were too young to bear arms should be
taken out of the land, and only the strong should be vouchsafed
their own country : that none but able-bodied soldiers and
husbandmen should continue to abide under their own roofs
and in the houses of their fathers. When Agg and Ebb brought
news of this to their mother Gambaruk, she saw that the authors
of this infamous decree had found safety in crime. Condemning
the decision of the assembly, she said that it was wrong to
relieve distress by murder of kindred, and declared that a plan
both more honourable and more desirable for the good of their
souls and bodies would be, to preserve respect towards their
parents and children, and choose by lot men who should quit
the country. And if the lot fell on old men and weak, then the
stronger should offer to go into exile in their place, and should
of their own free will undertake to bear the burden of it for the
feeble. But those men who had the heart to save their lives b}T
crime and impiety, and to persecute their parents and their
children by so abominable a decree, did not deserve life : for
they would be doing a work of cruelty and not of love.
Finally, all those whose own lives were dearer to them than the
love of their parents or their children, deserved but ill of their

BOOK EIGHT. 343

country. These words were reported to the assembly, and
assented to by the vote of the majority. 80 the fortunes of all
were staked upon the lot and those upon whom it fell were
doomed to be banished. Tims those who had been loth to
obey necessity of their own accord had now to accept the
award of chance. So they sailed first to Bleking, and then, [285]
sailing past Moring, they came to anchor at Gotland ; where,
according to Paulus,1 they are said to have been prompted by
the goddess Frigg to take the name of the Longobardi
[Lombards], whose nation they afterwards founded. In the
end they landed at Rugen, and, abandoning their ships, began
to march overland. They crossed and wasted a great portion
of the world ; and at last, finding an abode in Italy, changed
the ancient name of the nation for their own.

Meanwhile, the land of the Danes, where the tillers laboured
less and less, and all traces of the furrows were covered with
overgrowth, began to look like a forest. Almost stripped of
its pleasant native turf, it bristled with the dense unshapely
woods that grew up. Traces of this are yet seen in the aspect
of its fields. What were once acres fertile in grain are now
seen to be dotted with trunks of trees ; and where of old the
tillers turned the earth up deep and scattered the huge clods,
there has now sprung up a forest covering the fields, which
still bear the tracks of ancient tillage. Had not these lands
remained untilled and desolate with long overgrowth, the
tenacious roots of trees could never have shared the soil of
one and the same land with the furrows made by the plough.
Moreover, the mounds which men laboriously built up of old
on the level ground for the burial of the dead are now
covered by a mass of woodland. Many piles of stones are also
to be seen interspersed among the forest glades. These were
once scattered over the whole country, but the peasants care-
fully gathered the boulders and piled them into a heap that
they might not prevent furrows being cut in all directions ;
for they would sooner sacrifice a little of the land than find
the whole of it stubborn. From this work, done by the

1 Paulus] De Gestis Longobardorum, i. 2.

344 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

toil of the peasants tor the easier working of the fields, it is
judged that the population in ancient times was greater than
the present one, which is satisfied with small fields, and keeps
its agriculture within narrower limits than those of the ancient
tillage. Thus the present generation is amazed to behold that
it has exchanged a soil which could once produce grain for one
only fit to grow acorns, and the plough-handle and the corn-
stalks for a landscape studded with trees. Let this account of
Snio, which I have put together as truly as I could, suffice.

Snio was succeeded by Biorn ; and after him Harald
became sovereign. Harald's son Gorm won no mean place of
honour among the ancient generals of the Danes by his record
236] of doughty deeds. For he ventured into fresh fields, preferring
to practise his inherited valour, not in war, but in searching
the secrets of nature ; and, just as other kings are stirred by
warlike ardour, so his heart thirsted to look into marvels ;
either what he could experience himself, or what were merely
matters of report. And being desirous to go and see all
things foreign and extraordinary, he thought that he must
above all test a report which he had heard from the men of
Thule concerning the abode of a certain Geirrod.1 For they
boasted past belief of the mighty piles of treasure in that
country, but said that the way was beset with peril, and hardly
passable by mortal man. For those who had tried it declared
that it was needful to sail over the Ocean that goes round the
lands, to leave the sun and stars behind, to journey down into
chaos, and at last to pass into a land where no light was and
where darkness reigned eternally.

But the warrior trampled down in his soul all fear of the
dangers that beset him. Not that he desired booty, but glory :
for he hoped for a great increase of renown if he ventured
on a wholly unattempted quest. Three hundred men an-
nounced that they had the same desire as the king ; and he
resolved that Thorkill, who had brought the news, should be

1 Geirrod] Geruthus. So, in the account of the battle of Bravalla,
Saxo speaks of "men of Thule" (Icelanders) at a date in his tale before
the finding of Iceland. For tale of Thor and Garfred, see C. P. B. ii. 17.

BOOK EIGHT. 345

chosen to guide them on the journey, as he knew the ground
and was versed in the approaches to that country. Thorkill
did not refuse the task, and advised that, to meet the
extraordinary fury of the sea they had to cross, strongly-
made vessels should be built, fitted with many knotted
cords and close-set nails, filled with great store of provision,
and covered above with ox-hides to protect the inner spaces of
the ships from the spray of the waves breaking in. Then
they sailed off in only three galleys, each containing a hundred
chosen men.

Now when they had come to Halogaland [Helgeland], they
lost their favouring breezes, and were driven and tossed divers
ways over the seas in perilous voyage. At last, in extreme want
of food, and lacking even bread, they staved off hunger with a
little pottage. Some days passed, and they heard the thunder
of a storm brawling in the distance, as if it were deluging the
rocks. By this perceiving that land was near, they bade a
youth of great nimbleness climb to the masthead and look
out ; and he reported that a precipitous island was in sight.
All were overjoyed, and gazed with thirsty eyes at the
country at which he pointed, eagerly awaiting the refuge
of the promised shore. At last they managed to reach it,
and made their way out over the heights that blocked their
way, along very steep paths, into the higher ground. Then
Thorkill told them to take no more of the herds that were
running about in numbers on the coast, than would serve once
to appease their hunger. If they disobeyed, the guardian gods
of the spot would not let them depart. But the seamen, more
anxious to go on filling their bellies than to obey orders, post-
poned counsels of safety to the temptations of gluttony, and
loaded the now emptied holds of their ships with the carcasses
of slaughtered cattle. These beasts were very easy to capture, [287]
because they gathered in amazement at the unwonted sight of
men, their fears being made bold. On the following night
monsters dashed down upon the shore, filled the forest with
clamour, and beleaguered and beset the ships. One of them,
huger than the rest, strode over the waters, armed with a

346 SAXO GRAMMATIOUS.

mighty club. Coming close up to them, he bellowed out that
they should never sail away till they had atoned for the crime
they had committed in slaughtering the flock, and had made
good the losses of the herd of the gods by giving up one
man for each of their ships. Thorkill yielded to his threats ;
and, in order to preserve the safety of all by imperilling a few,
singled out three men by lot and gave them up.

This done, a favouring wind took them, and they sailed to
further Permland. It is a region of eternal cold, covered with
very deep snows, and not sensible to the force even of the
summer heats ; full of pathless forests, not fertile in grain
and haunted by beasts uncommon elsewhere. Its many rivers
pour onwards in a hissing, foaming flood, because of the reefs
imbedded in their channels. Here Thorkill drew up his ships
ashore, and bade them pitch their tents on the beach, declaring
that they had come to a spot whence the passage to Geirrod
would be short. Moreover, he forbade them to exchange any
speech with those that came up to them, declaring that
nothing enabled the monsters to injure strangers so much as
uncivil words on their part : it would be therefore safer for
his companions to keep silence ; none but he, who had seen all
the manners and customs of this nation before, could speak
safely. As twilight approached, a man of extraordinary bigness
greeted the sailors by their names, and came among them. All
were aghast, but Thorkill told them to greet his arrival cheer-
fully, telling them that this was Gudmund, the brother of
Geirrod, and the most faithful guardian in perils of all men
who landed in that spot. When the man asked why all
the rest thus kept silence, he answered that they were
very unskilled in his language, and were ashamed to use
[288] a speech they did not know. Then Gudmund invited them
to be his guests, and took them up in carriages. As they
went forward, they saw a river which could be crossed
by a bridge of gold.1 They wished to go over it, but Gud-
mund restrained them, telling them that by this channel

1 Bridge of gold] Cp. Gi<dlar-bru, the bridge over the river Gioll that
parted earth from the lower world.

BOOK EIGHT. 347

nature had divided the world of men from the world of
monsters, and that no mortal track might go further. Then
they reached the dwelling of their guide ; and here Thorkill
took his companions apart and warned them to behave like
men of good counsel amidst the divers temptations chance
might throw in their way ; to abstain from the food of the
stranger, and nourish their bodies only on their own ; and to
seek a seat apart from the natives, and have no contact with
any of them as they lay at meat. For if they partook of
that food they would lose recollection of all things, and
must live for ever in filthy intercourse amongst ghastly
hordes of monsters. Likewise he told them that they must
keep their hands off the servants and the cups of the people.

Round the table stood twelve noble sons of Gudmund, and
as many daughters of notable beauty. When Gudmund saw
that the king barely tasted what his servants brought, he re-
proached him with repulsing his kindness, and complained
that it was a slight on the host. But Thorkill was not at a
loss for a fitting excuse. He reminded him that men who
took unaccustomed food often suffered from it seriously, and
that the king was not ungrateful for the service rendered by
another, but was merely taking care of his health, when he re-
freshed himself as he was wont, and furnished his supper with
his own viands. An act, therefore, that was only done in the
healthy desire to escape some bane, ought in no wise to be put
down to scorn. Now when Gudmund saw that the temperance
of his guests had baffled his treacherous preparations, he deter-
mined to sap their chastity, if he could not weaken their
abstinence, and eagerly strained every nerve of his wit to
enfeeble their self-control. For he offered the king his daughter
in marriage, and promised the rest that they should have what-
ever women of his household they desired. Most of them
inclined to his offer : but Thorkill by his healthy admonitions
prevented them, as he had done before, from falling into tempta-
tion. With wonderful management, he divided his needful-
ness between the suspicious host and the delighted guests.
Four of the Danes, to whom lust was more than their salvation,

348 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

accepted the offer; the infection maddened them, distraught
their wits, and blotted out their recollection: for they are
said never to have been in their right mind after this. If
these men had kept themselves within the rightful bounds
of temperance, they would have equalled the glories of Her-
cules, surpassed with their spirit the bravery of giants, and been
[289] ennobled for ever by their wondrous services to their country.
Gudmund, stubborn to his purpose, and still doggedly spread-
ing his nets, extolled the delights of his garden, and tried to
lure the kino- thither to gather fruits, desiring to break down
his constant wariness by the lust of the eye and the baits
of the palate. The king, as before, was strengthened against
these treacheries by Thorkill, and rejected this feint of kindly
service ; he excused himself from accepting it on the plea
that he must hasten on his journey. Gudmund perceived
that Thorkill was shrewder than he at every point ; so,
despairing to accomplish his treachery, he carried them all
across to the further side of the river, and let them finish
their journey.

They went on ; and saw, not far off, a gloomy, neglected
town, looking more like a cloud exhaling vapour. Stakes
interspersed among the battlements showed the severed heads
of warriors, and dogs of great ferocity were seen watching
before the doors to guard the entrance. Thorkill threw them
a horn smeared with fat to lick, and so, at slight cost,
appeased their most furious rage. High up the gates lay open
to enter, and they climbed to their level with ladders, entering
with difficulty. Inside the town was crowded with murky
and misshapen phantoms, and it was hard to say whether
their shrieking figures were more ghastly to the eye or to
the ear; everything was foul, and the reeking mire afflicted
the nostrils of the visitors with its unbearable stench. Then
11 iey found the rocky dwelling which Geirrod was rumoured
to inhabit for his palace. They resolved to visit its narrow
and horrible ledge, but stayed their steps and halted in
panic at the very entrance. Then Thorkill, seeing that they
weir of two minds, dispelled their hesitation to enter by

BOOK EIGHT. 349

manful encouragement, counselling them to restrain them-
selves, and not to touch any piece of gear in the house
they were about to enter, albeit it seemed delightful to have
or pleasant to behold ; to keep their hearts as far from all
covetousness as from fear ; neither to desire what was pleasant
to take, nor dread what was awful to look upon, though they
should find themselves amidst abundance of both these
things. If they did, their greedy hands would suddenly be
bound fast, unable to tear themselves away from the thing
they touched, and knotted up with it as by inextricable bonds.
Moreover, they should enter in order, four by four. Broder and
Buchi [Buk ?] were the first who tried to go in ; Thorkill with
the king followed them, and the rest advanced behind these in
ordered ranks. Inside, the house was ruinous throughout,
and filled with a violent and abominable reek. And it was
seen to teem with everything that could disgust the eye or the [290]
mind : the door-posts were begrimed with the soot of ages, the
wall was plastered with filth, the roof was made up of spear-
heads, the flooring was covered with snakes and bespattered
with all manner of uncleanness. Such an unwonted sight
struck terror into the strangers, and, over all, the acrid and
incessant stench assailed their afflicted nostrils. Also bloodless
phantasmal monsters huddled on the iron seats, and the places
for sitting were railed off by leaden trellises ; and hideous
doorkeepers stood at watch on the thresholds. Some of these,
armed with clubs lashed together, yelled, while others played
a gruesome game, tossing a goat's hide from one to the other.
Here Thorkill again warned the men, and forbade them to
stretch forth their covetous hands rashly to the forbidden
things. Going on through the breach in the crag, they beheld
an old man with his body pierced through, sitting, not far off,
on a lofty seat facing the side of the rock that had been rent
away. Moreover, three women, whose bodies were covered
with tumours, and who seemed to have lost the strength of
their back-bones, filled adjoining seats. Thorkill's com-
panions were very curious ; and he, who well knew the
reason of the matter, told them that long ago the god Thor

:;:>0 saxo gkammaticus.

had been provoked by the insolence of the giants to drive
red-hot irons through the vitals of Geirrod, who strove with
him, and that the iron had slid further, torn up the mountain,
and battered through its side ; while the women had been
stricken by the might of his thunderbolts, and had been
punished (so he declared) for their attempt on. the same deity,
by having their bodies broken. As the men departed thence,
there were disclosed to them seven butts hooped round with
belts of <xold ; and from these hung circlets of silver entwined
with them in manifold links. Near these was found the tusk
of a strange beast, tipped at both ends with gold. Close by
was a vast stag-horn, laboriously decked with choice and
flashing gems, and this also did not lack chasing. Hard by
was to be seen a very heavy bracelet. One man was kindled
with an inordinate desire for this bracelet, and laid covetous
1 lands upon the gold, not knowing that the glorious metal
covered deadly mischief, and that a fatal bane lay hid under
the shining spoil. A second also, unable to restrain his covetous-
ness, reached out his quivering hands to the horn. A third,
matching the confidence of the others, and having no control
over his fingers, ventured to shoulder the tusk. The spoil
seemed alike lovely to look upon and desirable to enjoy,
for all that met the eye was fair and tempting to behold.
But the bracelet suddenly took the form of a snake, and
attacked him who was carrying it with its poisoned tooth ;
[291] the horn lengthened out into a serpent, and took the life of
the man who bore it ; the tusk wrought itself into a sword,
and plunged into the vitals of its bearer. The rest dreaded
the fate of perishing with their friends, and thought that the
guiltless would perish like the guilty; they durst not hope
that even innocence would be safe. Then the side-door of
another room showed them a narrow alcove: and a privy
chamber with a yet richer treasure was revealed, wherein
anus were laid out too great for those of human stature.
Among these were seen a royal mantle, a handsome hat, and
a belt marvellously wrought. Thorkill, struck with amaze-
ment at these things, gave rein to his covetousness, and cast

Book eight. 351

off all his purposed self-restraint. He who so oft had trained
others could not so much as conquer his own cravings. For
he laid his hand upon the mantle, and his rash example
tempted the rest to join in his enterprise of plunder. There-
upon the recess shook from its lowest foundations, and
began suddenly to reel and totter. Straightway the women
raised a shriek that the wicked robbers were being endured
too long. Then they, who were before supposed to be half-
dead or lifeless phantoms, seemed to obey the cries of the
women, and, leaping suddenly up from their seats, attacked
the strangers with furious onset. The other creatures bellowed
hoarsely. Then Broder and Buchi fell to their old and familiar
arts, and attacked the witches, who ran at them, with a shower
of spears from every side ; and with the missiles from their
bows and slings they crushed the array of monsters. There
could be no stronger or more successful way to repulse them ;
but only twenty men out of all the king's company were
rescued by the intervention of this archery ; the rest were
torn in pieces by the monsters. The survivors returned to
the river, and were ferried over by Gudmund, who enter-
tained them at his house. Long and often as he besought
them, he could not keep them back ; so at last he gave them
presents and let them go. Then Buchi relaxed his watch upon
himself ; his self-control became unstrung, and he forsook the
virtue in which he hitherto rejoiced. For he conceived an
incurable love for one of the daughters of Gudmund, and
embraced her ; but he obtained a bride to his undoing, for soon
his brain suddenly began to whirl, and he lost his recollection.
Thus the hero who had subdued all the monsters and overcome
all the perils was mastered by passion for one girl ; his soul
strayed far from temperance, and he lay under a wretched
sensual yoke. For the sake of respect, he started to accom-
pany the departing king ; but as he was about to ford the
river in his carriage, his wheels sank deep, he was caught up
in the violent eddies and destroyed. The king bewailed his [292]
friend's disaster and departed, hastening on his voyage. This
was at first prosperous, but afterwards he was tossed by

352 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

bad weather; his men perished of hunger, and but few
survived; so that he began to feel awe in his heart, and fell
to making vows to heaven, thinking the gods alone could
help him in his extreme need. At last the others besought
sundry powers among the gods, and thought they ought to
sacrifice to the majesty of divers deities; but the king, otter-
ing both vows and peace-offerings to Utgarda-Loki, obtained
that fair season of weather for which he prayed.

Coming home, and feeling that he had passed through all
these seas and toils, he thought it was time for his spirit,
wearied with calamities, to withdraw from his labours. So
he took a queen from Sweden, and exchanged his old pur-
suits for meditative leisure. His life was prolonged in the
utmost peace and quietness ; but when he had almost come to
the end of his days, certain men persuaded him by likely
arguments that souls were immortal ; so that he was con-
stantly turning over in his mind the questions, to what abode
he was to fare when the breath left his limbs, or what reward
was earned by zealous adoration of the gods.

While he was thus inclined, certain men who wished ill to
Thorkill came and told Gorm that it was needful to consult
the gods, and that assurance about so great a matter must be
sought of the oracles of heaven, since it was too deep for
human wit and hard for mortals to discover. Therefore,
they said, Utgarda-Loki must be appeased, and no man
would accomplish this more fitly than Thorkill. Others,
again, laid information against him as guilty of treachery
and an enemy of the king's life. Thorkill, seeing himself
doomed to extreme peril, demanded that his accusers should
share his journey. Then they who had aspersed an innocent
man saw that the peril they had designed against the life of
another had recoiled upon themselves, and tried to take back
their plan. But vainly did they pester the ears of the king ;
he forced them to sail under the command of Thorkill, and
even upbraided them with cowardice. Thus, when a mis-
chief is designed against another, it is commonly sure to
strike home to its author. And when these men saw that

BOOK EIGHT. :J.")3

they were constrained, and could not possibly avoid the peril,
they covered their ship with ox-hides, and tilled it with
abundant store of provision.

In this ship they sailed away, and came to a sunless land,
which knew not the stars, was void of daylight, and seemed
to overshadow them with eternal night. Long they sailed
under this strange sky ; at last their timber fell short, and [293]
they lacked fuel ; and, having no place to boil their meat in,
they staved off their hunger with raw viands. But most of
those who ate contracted extreme disease, being glutted with
undigested food. For the unusual diet first made a faintness
steal gradually upon their stomachs ; then the infection spread
further, and the malady reached the vital parts. Thus there
was danger in either extreme, which made it hurtful not to eat,
and perilous to indulge; for it was found both unsafe to feed and
bad for them to abstain. Then, when they were beginning to
be in utter despair, a gleam of unexpected help relieved them,
even as the string breaks most easily when it is stretched
tightest. For suddenly the weary men saw the twinkle of
a fire at no great distance, and conceived a hope of prolong-
ing their lives. Thorkill thought this fire a heaven-sent relief,
and resolved to go and take some of it. To be surer of
getting back to his friends, he fastened a jewel upon the
mast-head, to mark it by the gleam. When he got to the
shore, his eyes fell on a cavern in a close defile, to which a
narrow way led. Telling his companions to await him outside,
he went in, and saw two men, swart1 and very huge, with
horny noses, feeding their fire with any chance-given fuel.
Moreover, the entrance was hideous, the door-posts were
decayed, the walls grimy with mould, the roof filthy, and the
floor swarming with snakes ; all of which disgusted the eye as
much as the mind. Then one of the giants greeted him, and
said that he had begun a most difficult venture in his burning
desire to visit a strange god, and his attempt to explore with
curious search an untrodden region beyond the world. Yet he
promised to tell Thorkill the paths of the journey he proposed

1 Swart] aquilos. See p. 51.

A A

354 SAXO (JHAMMATICUS.

bo make, if he would deliver three true judgments in the form
of as many sayings. Then said Thorkill: "In good truth, I
do not remember ever to have seen a household with more
uncomely noses ; nor have I ever come to a spot where I had
less mind to live." Also he said : " That, I think, is my best foot
which can get out of this foremost." The giant was delighted
with the shrewdness of Thorkill, and praised the truth of his
sayings, telling him that he must first travel to a grassless
land which was veiled in deep darkness; but he must first
voyage for four days, rowing incessantly, before he could reach
his goal. There he could visit Utmirda-Loki, who had chosen
hideous and grisly caves for his filthy dwelling. Thorkill
[294] was much aghast at being bidden to go on a voyage so long
and hazardous; but his doubtful hopes prevailed over his
present fears, and he asked for some live fuel. Then said the
giant: "If thou needest fire, thou must deliver three more
judgments in like sayings." Then said Thorkill: "Good
counsel is to be obeyed, though a mean fellow gave it." Like-
wise : " I have gone so far in rashness, that if I can get back
I shall owe my safety to none but my own legs." And
again : " Were I free to retreat this moment, I would take
U-ood care never to come back."

Thereupon he took the fire along to his companions ; and
he found a kindly wind, and landed on the fourth day at
the appointed harbour. With his crew he entered a land
where an aspect of unbroken night checked the vicissitude1
of light and darkness. He could hardly see before him, but
beheld a rock of enormous size. Wishing to explore it, he
told his companions, who were standing posted at the door,
to strike a fire from flints as a timely safeguard against
demons, and kindle it in the entrance. Then he made others
heai- a light before him, and stooped his body through the
narrow jaws of the cavern, where he beheld a number of iron
seats among a swarm of gliding serpents. Next there met his
eye a sluggish mass of water gently flowing over a sandy

1 Checked the vicissitude . . . .] ''Grateful vicissitude like day and
night." (Milton, Par. Lost, vi. <S.)

BOOK EIGHT. 355

bottom. He crossed this, and approached a cavern which
sloped somewhat more steeply. Again, after this, a foul and
gloomy room was disclosed to the visitors, wherein they saw
Utgarda-Loki, laden hand and foot with enormous chains.
Each of his reeking hairs was as large and stiff as a spear of
cornel. Thorkill (his companions lending a hand), in order
that his deeds might gain more credit, plucked one of these
from the chin of Utgarda-Loki, who suffered it. Straightway
such a noisome smell reached the bystanders, that they could
not breathe without stopping their noses with their mantles.
They could scarcely make their way out, and were bespattered
by the snakes which darted at them on every side.

Only five of Thorkill's company embarked with their
captain: the poison killed the rest. The demons hung furiously
over them, and cast their poisonous slaver from every side
upon the men below them. But the sailors sheltered them-
selves with their hides, and cast back the venom that fell upon
them. One man by chance at this point wished to peep out ; the
poison touched his head, which was taken off his neck as if
it had been severed with a sword. Another put his eyes out
of their shelter, and when he brought them back under it they
were blinded. Another thrust forth his hand while unfolding
his covering, and, when he withdrew his arm, it was withered
by the virulence of the same slaver. They besought their [295]
deities to be kinder to them ; vainly, until Thorkill prayed
to the god of the universe, and poured forth unto him libations
as well as prayers ; and thus, presently finding the sky even
as before and the elements clear, he made a fair voyage.

And now they seemed to behold another world, and the way
towards the life of men. At last Thorkill landed in Germany,
which had then been admitted to Christianity ; and among its
people he began to learn how to worship God. His band
of men were almost destroyed, because of the dreadful air
they had breathed, and he returned to his country accompanied
by two men only, who had escaped the worst. But the corrupt
matter which smeared his face so disguised his person and
original features that not even his friends knew him. But

A A 2

356 S^X0 GRAMMATICUS.

when he wiped off the filth, lie made himself recognisable by

those who saw him, and inspired the king with the greatest
eagerness to hear about his quest. But the detraction of his
rivals was not yet silenced : and some pretended that the king
would die suddenly if he learnt Thorkill's tidings. The king
was the more disposed to credit this saying, because he was
already credulous by reason of a dream which falsely prophe-
sied the same thing. Men were therefore hired by the
king's command to slay Thorkill in the night. But somehow
lie got wind of it, left his bed unknown to all, and put a
heavy log in his place. By this he baffled the treacherous
device of the king, for the hirelings smote only the stock. On
the morrow he went up to the king as he sat at meat, and
said : " I forgive thy cruelty and pardon thy error, in that
thou hast decreed punishment, and not thanks, to him who
brings good tidings of his errand. For thy sake I have
devoted my life to all these afflictions, and battered it in
all these perils; I hoped that thou wouldst requite my ser-
vices with much gratitude; and behold! I have found thee,
and thee alone, punish my valour sharpliest. But I forbear
all vengeance, and am satisfied with the shame within thy
heart — if, after all, any shame visits the thankless — as expia-
tion for this thy wrong-doing towards me. I have a right to
surmise that thou art worse than all demons in fury, and all
1 teasts in cruelty, if, after escaping the snares of all these
monsters, 1 have failed to be safe from thine."

The king desired to learn everything from Thorkill's own
lips; and, thinking it hard to escape destiny, bade him relate
what had happened in due order. He listened eagerly to his
recital of everything, till at last, when his own god was named,
he could not endure him to be unfavourably judged. For he
[296] could not bear to hear Utgarda-Loki reproached with filthi-
ness, and so resented his shameful misfortunes, that his very
life could not brook such words, and he yielded it up in the
midst of Thorkill's narrative. Thus, whilst he was so zealous
in the worship of a false god, he came to find where the true
prison of sorrows really was. Moreover, the reek of the hair,

BOOK EIGHT. 357

which Thorkill plucked from the locks of the giant to testily
to the greatness of his own deeds, was exhaled upon the by-
standers, so that many perished of it.

After the death of Gorm, Gotrik his son came to the
throne. He was notable not only for prowess but for genero-
sity, and none can say whether his courage or his compassion
was the greater. He so chastened his harshness with mercy,
that he seemed to counterweigh the one with the other. At
this time Gaut, the King of Norway, was visited by Ber
[Biorn ?] and Ref,1 men of Thule. Gaut treated Ref with
attention and friendship, and presented him with a heavy
bracelet.

One of the courtiers, when he saw this, praised the great-
ness of the gift over-jealously, and declared that no one was
equal to King Gaut in kindness. But Ref, though he owed
thanks for the benefit, could not approve the inflated words
of this extravagant praiser, and said that Gotrik was
more generous than Gaut. Wishing to crush the empty boast
of the flatterer, he chose rather to bear witness to the
generosity of the absent than tickle with lies the vanity of
his benefactor who was present. For another thing, he
thought it somewhat more desirable to be charged with
ingratitude than to support with his assent such idle and
boastful praise, and also to move the king by the solemn
truth than to beguile him with lying flatteries. But Ulf
persisted not only in stubbornly repeating his praises of
the king, but in bringing them to the proof ; and proposed
their gainsayer a wager. With his consent Ref went to
Denmark, and found Gotrik seated in state, and dealing
out the pay to his soldiers. When the king asked him
who he was, he said that his name was " Fox-cub". The
answer filled some with mirth and some with marvel, and
Gotrik said, " Yea, and it is fitting that a fox should catch his
prey in his mouth." And thereupon he drew a bracelet from
his arm, called the man to him, and put it between his lips.
Straightway Ref put it upon his arm, which he displayed to

' Ref] O. Norse ifc/r, "Fox."

358 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

them all adorned with gold, but the other arm he kept hidden
as lacking ornament; for which shrewdness he received a
gift equal to the first from that hand of matchless generosity.
At this lie was overjoyed, not so much because the reward
was oreat, as because he had won his contention. And when
the king learnt from him about the wager he had laid, he
rejoiced that he had been lavish to him more by accident than
[297] of set purpose, and declared that he got more pleasure from the
eriviner than the receiver from the gift. So Ref returned to
Norway and slew his opponent, who refused to pay the
wager. Then he took the daughter of Gaut captive, and
brought her to Gotrik for his own.

Gotrik, who is also called Godef ride, carried his arms against
foreigners, and increased his strength and glory by his suc-
cessful generalship. Among his memorable deeds were the
terms of tribute he imposed upon the Saxons ; namely, that
whenever a change of kings occurred among the Danes, their
princes should devote a hundred snow-white horses to the
new king on his accession. But if the Saxons should receive
a new chief upon a change in the succession, this chief was
likewise to pay the aforesaid tribute obediently, and bow at
the outset of his power to the sovereign majesty of Denmark ;
thereby acknowledging the supremacy of our nation, and
solemnly confessing his own subjection. Nor was it enough
for Gotrik to subjugate Germany : he appointed Ref on a
mission to try the strength of Sweden. The Swedes feared
to slay him with open violence, but ventured to act like
bandits, and killed him, as he slept, with the blow of a stone.
For, hanging a millstone above him, they cut its fastenings,
and let it drop upon his neck as he lay beneath. To expiate
this crime it was decreed that each of the ringleaders should
pay twelve golden talents, while each of the common people
should pay Gotrik one ounce.1 Men called this ':the Fox-cub's
tribute" [Refsgild].

1 Talents .... ounce] auri talenta .... elusdem (jeueris unciam.
K.ixo's usual unit of weight for coinage is libra, which we render " mark".
Talentum may be the same amount, as often. Uncia is }\ of libra.

BOOK EIGHT. 359

Meanwhile it befell that Karl, Kino- of the Franks, crushed
Germany in war, and forced it not only to embrace the worship
of Christianity, but also to obey his authority. When Gotrik
heard of this, he attacked the nations bordering on the Elbe, and
attempted to regain under his sway as of old the realm of
Saxony, which eagerly accepted the yoke of Karl, and pre-
ferred the Roman to the Danish arms. Karl had at this time
withdrawn his victorious camp beyond the Rhine, and there-
fore forbore to engage the stranger enemy, being prevented
by the intervening river. But when he was intending to cross
once more to subdue the power of Gotrik, he wTas summoned
by Leo1 the Pope of the Romans to defend the city. Obeying
this command, he intrusted his son Pepin with the conduct of
the war against Gotrik ; so that while he himself was working
against a distant foe, Pepin might manage the conflict he had
undertaken with his neighbour. For Karl was distracted by [298]
two anxieties, and had to furnish sufficient out of a scanty band
to meet both of them. Meanwhile Gotrik won a glorious
victory over the Saxons. Then gathering new strength, and
mustering a larger body of forces, he resolved to avenge
the wrong he had suffered in losing his sovereignty, not only
upon the Saxons, but upon the whole people of Germany.
He began by subduing Friesland2 with his fleet. This province
lies very low, and whenever the fury of the ocean bursts the
dykes that bar its waves, it is wont to receive the whole mass
of the deluge over its open plains. On this country Gotrik
imposed a kind of tribute, which was not so much harsh
as strange. I will briefly relate its terms and the manner
of it. First, a building was arranged, two hundred and
forty feet in length, and divided into twelve spaces; each of
these stretching over an interval of twenty feet, and thus
making together, when the whole room was exhausted, the
aforesaid total. Now at the upper end of this building sat
the king's treasurer, and in a line with him at its further end
was displayed a round shield. When the Frisians came to pay

1 Leo] The Third, died 741.

2 Friesland] See p. 7, and passage there translated in note.

,%0 SAXO OKA. MM ITICUS.

tribute, they used to cast their coins one by one into the
hollow of tltis shield; but only those coins which struck the
ear of the distant toll-gatherer with a distinct clang were
chosen by him, as he counted, to be reckoned among the
royal tribute. The result was that the collector only reckoned
that money towards the treasury of which his distant ear
cauffht the sound as it fell. But that of which the sound
was duller, and which fell out of his earshot, was received
indeed into the treasury, but did not count as any increase
to the sum paid. Now many coins that were cast in struck
with no audible loudness whatever on the collector's ear, so
that men who came to pay their appointed toll sometimes
squandered much of their money in useless tribute. Karl is
said to have freed them afterwards from the burden of this
tax. After Gotrik had crossed Friesland, and Karl had now
come back from Rome, Gotrik determined to swoop down
upon the further districts of Germany, but was treacherously
attacked by one of his own servants, and perished at home
by the sword of a traitor. When Karl heard this, he leapt
up overjoyed, declaring that nothing more delightful had ever
fallen to his lot than this happy chance.1

1 With Godfred and Karl Saxo touches true history. Eginhard tells of
an expedition against Godfred, who was ':so puffed up with idle hopes as
to promise himself the sway over all Germany, thinking Friesland and
Saxmy as good as his own provinces. " The chroniclers agree that Godfred
was killed in 810 at Stifla-Sound by a traitor suborned by Asa, as
Ynglinga'al witnesses. C. P. B. i. 250, ii. 655. See also Ynglinga Saga.

END OF HOOK ETOHT.

BOOK NINE.

After Gotrik's death reigned his son Olaf; who, desirous [299]
to avenge his father, did not hesitate to involve his country in
civil wars, putting patriotism after private inclination. When
lie perished, his body was put in a barrow, famous for the
name of Olaf, which was built up close by Leire.1

He was succeeded by Hemming, of whom I have found no
deed worthy of record, save that he made a sworn peace with
Kaisar Ludwig ; and yet, perhaps, envious antiquity hides
many notable deeds of his time, albeit they were then famous.

After these men there came to the throne, backed by the
Skanians and Zealanders, Siavard, surnamed Ring. He
was the son, born long ago, of the chief of Norway who
bore the same name, by Gotrik's daughter. Now Ring,
cousin of Siward, and also a grandson of Gotrik, was master of
Jutland. Thus the power of the single kingdom was divided ;
and, as though its two parts were contemptible for their
smallness, foreigners began not only to despise but to attack
it. These Siward assailed with greater hatred than he did his
rival for the throne ; and, preferring wars abroad to wars at
home, he stubbornly defended his country against clangers for
five years ; for he chose to put up with a trouble at home that
he might the more easily cure one which came from abroad.
Wherefore Ring, [desiring his] command,2 seized the oppor-
tunity, tried to transfer the whole sovereignty to himself, and
did not hesitate to injure in his own land the man who was

1 Anlaf Geirstada-elf. See Ynglingatal, C. P. B. i. 250, which tells of
his barrow, and Flateybuk, ii. 7, respecting the worship of him.

2 Command] dominationis, ed. pr. Some word like avidus is dropped,
if the reading is right. Holder takes St.'s emendation domuiUonis
t=peregrhi'tbionis). The p*ssaj.e would tlnn run, "seizing ihe oppor-
tunity of his going abroad."

362 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

watching over it without; for he attacked the provinces in
the possession of Siward, which was an ungrateful requital for
[300] the defence of their common country. Therefore, some of the
Zealanders who were more zealous for Siward, in order to
show him firmer Loyalty in Ins absence, proclaimed his son
Ragnar as kino;, when he was scarcely dragged out of his
cradle. Not but what they knew he was too young to
govern ; yet they hoped that such a gage would serve to rouse
their sluggish allies against Ring. But, when Ring heard
that Siward had meantime returned from his expedition, he
attacked the Zealanders with a large force, and proclaimed
that they should perish by the sword if they did not
surrender; but the Zealanders, who were bidden to choose
between shame and peril, were so few that they distrusted
their strength, and requested a truce to consider the matter.
It was granted ; but, since it did not seem open to them
to seek the favour of Siward, nor honourable to embrace that
of Ring, they wavered long in perplexity between fear and
shame. In this plight even the old were at a loss for counsel ;
but Ragnar, who chanced to be present at the assembly, said:
" The short bow shoots its shaft suddenly. Though it may
seem the hardihood of a bo}r that I venture to forestall the
speech of the elders, yet I pray you to pardon my errors, and
be indulgent to my unripe words. Yet the counsellor of
wisdom is not to be spurned, though lie seem contemptible ;
for the teaching of profitable things should be drunk in with
an open mind. Now it is shameful that we should be branded
as deserters and runaways, but it is just as foolhardy to
venture above our strength; and thus there is proved to he
equal blame either way. We must, then, pretend to go over
to the enemy, but, when a chance comes in our way, Ave must
desert him betimes. It will thus be better to forestall the
wrath of our foe by feigned obedience than, by refusing it, to
give him a weapon wherewith to attack us yet more harshly ;
for if we decline the sway of the stronger, are we not simply
torning his arms against our own throat ? Intricate devices
are often the best nurse of craft. You need cunning to trap

BOOK NINE. 363

a fox." By this sound counsel he dispelled the wavering
of his countrymen, and strengthened the camp of the enemy
to its own hurt.

The assembly, marvelling at the eloquence as much as at
the wit of one so young, gladly embraced a proposal of such
genius, which they thought excellent beyond his years. Nor
were the old men ashamed to obey the bidding of a boy
when they lacked counsel themselves; for, though it came
from one of tender years, it was full, notwithstanding, of
weighty and sound instruction. But the}^ feared to expose
their adviser to immediate peril, and sent him over to Norway
to be brought up. Soon afterwards, Siward joined battle with ![30IJ
Ring and attacked him. He slew Ring, but himself received
an incurable wound, of which he died a few days afterwards.

He was succeeded on the throne by Ragnar. At this time
Fro [Frey ?}, the King of Sweden, after slaying Siward, the
King of the Norwegians, put the wives of Siward's kinsfolk
in bonds in a brothel, and delivered them to public outrage.
When Ragnar heard of this, he went to Norway to avenge his
grandfather. As he came, many of the matrons, who had
either suffered insult to their persons or feared imminent peril
to their chastity, hastened eagerly to his camp in male attire,
declaring that they would prefer death to outrage. Nor did
Ragnar, who was to punish this reproach upon the women,
scorn to use against the author of the infamy the help of
those whose shame he had come to avenge. Among them
was Ladgerda, a skilled amazon, who, though a maiden, had
the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest
with her hair loose over her shoulders. All marvelled at her
matchless deeds, for her locks flying dowTn her back betrayed
that she was a woman. Ragnar, when he had cut down
the murderer of his grandfather, asked many questions of his
fellow-soldiers concerning the maiden whom he had seen so
forward in the fray, and declared that he had gained the
victory by the might of one woman. Learning that she was of
noble birth among the barbarians, he steadfastly wooed her
by means of messengers. She spurned his mission in her

304 SAXO GRAMMATTOUS.

heart, but feigned compliance. Giving false answers, she
made her panting wooer confident that he would gain his
desires; but ordered that a bear and a dog should be set at the
porch of her dwelling, thinking to guard her own room against
all the ardour of a lover by means of the beasts that blocked
the way. Ragnar, comforted by the good news, embarked,
crossed the sea, and, telling his men to stop in Gaulardale,1 as
the valley is called, went to the dwelling of the maiden alone.
Here the beasts met him, and he thrust one through with
a spear, and caught the other by the throat, wrung its neck,
and choked it. Thus he had the maiden as the prize of the
peril he had overcome. By this marriage he had two daughters,
whose names have not come down to us, and a son Fridleif.
Then he lived three years at peace.

The Jutlanders, a presumptuous race,2 thinking that
because of his recent marriage he would never return, took
the Skanians into alliance, and tried to attack the Zealanders,
[302] who preserved the most zealous and affectionate loyalty
towards Ragnar. He, when he heard of it, equipped thirty
ships, and, the winds favouring his voyage, crushed the
Skanians, who ventured to fight, near the stead of Whiteby8;
and when the winter was over he fought successfully with the
Jutlanders who dwelt near the Liim-fjord in that region.
A third and a fourth time he conquered the Skanians and the
Hallanders triumphantly. Then, changing his love, and desir-
ing Thora, the daughter of the King Herodd, to wife, he
divorced himself from Ladgerda; for he thought ill of her
trustworthiness, remembering that she had long ago set the
most savage beasts to destroy him. Meantime Herodd, the
King of the Swedes, happening to go and hunt in the woods.
brought home some snakes, found by his escort, for his daughter
to rear. She speedily obeyed the instructions of her father,
and endured to rear a race of adders with her maiden
hands. Moreover, she took care that they should daily have

1 (laulardalej Oolerdal, now (M.) Guuldale.

- A presumptuous race] This is one of Saxo's prejudices. Cp. Bk. xvi,
])[>. 645-6 fed. Iloldc). :; Whiteby] in Skaane.

BOOK NINE. 365

a whole ox-carcase to gorge upon, not knowing that she was

privately feeding and keeping up a public nuisance. The
vipers grew up, and scorched the country-side with their
pestilential breath. Whereupon the king, repenting of his
sluggishness, proclaimed that whosoever removed the pest
should have his daughter. Many warriors were attracted by
courage as much as by desire ; but all idly and perilously
wasted their pains. Ragnar, learning from men who travelled
to and fro how the matter stood, asked his nurse for a
woollen mantle, and for some thigh-pieces that were very
hairy, with which he could repel the snake-bites. He thought
that he ought to use a dress stuffed with hair to protect
himself, and also took one that was not unwieldy, that he
might move nimbly. And when he had landed in Sweden,
he deliberately plunged his body in water, while there was
a frost falling, and, wetting his dress, to make it the less
penetrable, he let the cold freeze it. Thus attired, he took
leave of his companions, exhorted them to remain loyal to
Fridleif, and went on to the palace alone. When he saw it,
he tied his sword to his side, and lashed a spear to his
right hand with a thong. As he went on, an enormous
snake glided up and met him. Another, equally huge,
crawled up, following in the trail of the first. They strove
now to buffet the young man with the coils of their tails,
and now to spit and belch their venom stubbornly upon him.
Meantime the courtiers, betaking themselves to safer hiding,
watched the struggle from afar like affrighted little girls.
The king was stricken with equal fear, and fled, with a few
followers, to a narrow shelter. But Kagnar, trusting in the
hardness of his frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not
only with his arms, but with his attire, and, single-handed, [303]
in unweariable combat, stood up against the two gaping
creatures, who stubbornly poured forth their venom upon him.
For their teeth he repelled with his shield, their poison with
his dress. At last he cast his spear, and drove it against the
bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard. He
pierced both their hearts, and his battle ended in victory.

366 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

The king scanned his dress closely^and saw that he was rough
and hairy; but, above all, he laughed at the shaggy lower
portion of his garb, and chiefly the uncouth aspect of his
breeches; so that he gave him in jest the nickname of Lodbrog.1
Also he invited him to feast with his friends, to refresh him
after his labours. Ragnar said that he would first go back to
the witnesses whom he had left behind. He set out and
brought them hack, splendidly attired for the coming feast.
At last, when the banquet was over, he received the prize that
was appointed for the victory. By her he begot two nobly-
gifted sons, Radbard and Dunwat.2 These also had brothers —
Siward, Biorn, Agnar, and Iwar.

Meanwhile the Jutes and Skanians were kindled with an
unquenchable fire of sedition; they disallowed the title of
Ragnar, and gave a certain Harald the sovereign power.
Ragnar sent envoys to Norway, and besought friendly assist-
ance against these men; and Ladgerda, whose early love
still flowed deep and steadfast, hastily sailed off with her
husband and her son. She brought herself to offer a hundred
and twenty ships to the man who had once put her away.
And he, thinking himself destitute of all resources, took to
borrowing help from folk of every age, crowded the strong
and the feeble all together, and was not ashamed to insert
some old men and boys among the wedges of the strong. So
he first tried to crush the power of the Skanians in the field
which in Latin is called Laneus [Woolly3] ; here he had a hard
fight with the rebels. Here, too, Iwar, who was in his seventh
year, fought splendidly, and showed the strength of a man in
the body of a boy. But Siward, while attacking the enemy
face to face, fell forward upon the ground wounded. When
his men saw this, it made them look round most anxiously
for means of flight; and this brought low not only Siward,
but almost the whole army on the side of Ragnar. But
Ragnar by his manly deeds and exhortations comforted their

1 Lodbrog] 0. Norse Ldd-brokr, Shaggy-Breech, the epithet for a hawk.

2 DunwatJ So St. for Dun Warthnumque of ed. pr.

3 Woolly] Laneus, O. Norse Ullr-«kr, "Wool-Acre."

BOOK NINE. 367

amazed and sunken spirits, and, just when they were ready
to be conquered, spurred them on to try and conquer. Also
Ladgerda, who had a matchless spirit though a delicate frame,
covered by her splendid bravery the inclination of the soldiers [304]
to waver. For she made a sally about, and flew round to
the rear of the enemy, taking them unawares, and thus turned
the panic of her friends into the camp of the enemy. At
last the lines of Harald became slack, and Harald himself
was routed with a great slaughter of his men. Ladgerda,
when she had gone home after the battle, murdered her
husband . . . .] in the night with a spear-head, which she had
hid in her gown. Then she usurped the whole of his name and
sovereignty ; for this most presumptuous dame thought it
pleasanter to rule without her husband than to share the
throne with him.

Meantime Siwarcl was taken to a town in the neighbour-
hood, and gave himself to be tended by the doctors, who were
reduced to the depths of despair. But while the huge wound
baffled all the remedies they applied, a certain man of amazing
size'2 was seen to approach the litter of the sick man, and
promised that Siward should straightway rejoice and be
whole, if he would consecrate unto him the souls of all whom
he should overcome in battle. Nor did he conceal his name,
but said that he was called Rostar.3 Now Siward, when he
saw that a great benefit could be got at the cost of a little
promise, eagerly acceded to his request. Then the old man
suddenly, by the help of his hand, touched and banished the
livid spot, and suddenly scarred the wound over. At last he
poured dust on his eyes and departed. Spots suddenly arose,
and the dust, to the amaze of the beholders, seemed to become
wonderfully like little snakes. I should think that he who
did this miracle wished to declare, by the manifest token of
his eyes, that the young man was to be cruel in future, in
order that the more visible part of his body might not lack

1 One suspects ;i lacuna, in which the husband's name lias perished.

2 Man of amazing size] Odin. See Thulor, G P. B. ii. 42G.

3 Roftar [Hroptr] would be a better reading.

368 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

some omen of bis life that was to follow. When the old
woman, who had the care of his draughts, saw him showing
in his face signs of little snakes, she was seized with an extra-
ordinary horror of the young man, and suddenly fell and
swooned away. Hence it happened that Siward got the
widespread name of Snake-Eye.

Meantime Thora, the bride of Ragnar, perished of a
violent malady, which caused infinite trouble and distress
to the husband, who dearly loved his wife. This distress, he
thought, would be best dispelled by business, and he resolved
to find solace in exercise and qualify his grief by toil.
To banish his affliction and gain some comfort, he bent his
thoughts to warfare, and decreed that every father of a
family should devote to his service whichever of his children
he thought most contemptible, or any slave of his who was
lazy at his work or of doubtful fidelity. And albeit that this
[5°5] decree seemed little fitted for his purpose, he showed that the
feeblest of the Danish race were better than the strongest
men of other nations ; and it did the young men great good,
each of those chosen being eager to wipe off the reproach of
indolence. Also he enacted that every piece of litigation
should be referred to the judgment of twelve chosen elders,
all ordinary methods of action1 being removed, the accuser
being forbidden to charge, and the accused to defend. This
law removed all chance of incurring*2 litigation lightly. Think-
ing that there was thus sufficient provision made against false
accusations by unscrupulous men, he lifted up his arms against
Britain, and attacked and slew in battle its king, Hame, the
father of Helle,3 who was a most noble youth. Then he killed
the earls of Scotland and of Pictland, and of the isles that
they call the Southern or Meridional [Sudr-eyar], and made
his sons Siward and Radbard masters of the provinces, which
were now without governors. He also deprived Norway of
its chief by force, and commanded it to obey Fridleif, whom

1 Methods of action] acbionum instrumentis. So M.

2 Incurring] contract i<mc.

'■'• The .Kll 1 of the 0. E. Chion., who was slain 807, as appears below.

BOOK NINK. 369

he also set over the Orkneys, from which lie took their own
earl.

Meantime some of the Danes who were most stubborn in
their hatred against Ragnar were obstinately bent on rebellion.
They rallied to the side of Harald, once an exile, and tried to
raise the fallen fortunes of the tyrant. By this hardihood they
raised up against the king the most virulent blasts of civil
war, and entangled him in domestic perils when he was free
from foreign troubles. Ragnar, setting out to check them with
a fleet of the Danes who lived in the isles, crushed the army of
the rebels, drove Harald, the leader of the conquered army, a
fugitive to Germany, and forced him to resign unbashfully an
honour which he had gained without scruple. Nor was he
content simply to kill his prisoners : he preferred to torture
them to death, so that those who could not be induced to for-
sake their disloyalty might not be so much as suffered to give
up the ghost save under the most grievous punishment. More-
over, the estates of those who had deserted with Harald he
distributed among those who were serving as his soldiers,
tl linking that the fathers would be worse punished by seeing the
honour of their inheritance made over to the children whom
they had rejected, while those whom they had loved better lost
their patrimony. But even this did not sate his vengeance, and
he further determined to attack Saxony, thinking it the refuge
of his foes and the retreat of Harald. So, begging his sons to
help him, he came on Karl,1 who happened then to be .tarrying
on those borders of his empire. Intercepting his sentries, he
eluded the watch that was posted on guard. But while he [306]
thought that all the rest would therefore be easy and more
open to his attacks, suddenly a woman who was a soothsayer, a
a kind of divine oracle or interpreter of the will of heaven,
warned the king with a saving prophecy, and by her fortunate
presage forestalled the mischief that impended, saying that the
fleet of Si ward had moored at the mouth of the river Seine.
The emperor, heeding the warning, and understanding that

1 Kirl] This victory of Ragnar is a rhetorical fiction.

B B

370 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

the enemy was at hand, managed to engage with and stop the
barbarians, who were thus pointed out to him. A battle was
fought with Ragnar; but Karl did not succeed as happily in
the field as he had got warning of the danger. And so that
tireless conqueror of almost all Europe, who in his calm and
complete career of victory had travelled over so great a
portion of the world, now beheld his army, which had van-
quished all these states and nations, turning its face from the
field, and shattered by a handful from a single province.

Ragnar, after loading the Saxons with tribute, had sure
tidings from Sweden of the death of Herodd, and also heard
that his own sons, owing to the slander of Sorle, the succeed-
ing kino- had been robbed of their inheritance. He besought
the aid of the brothers Biorn, Fridleif, and Radbard (for
Ragnald, Hwitserk, and Erik, his sons by Swanloga, had not
yet reached the age of bearing arms), and went to Sweden.
Sorle met him with his army, and offered him the choice
between a public conflict and a duel: and, when Ragnar chose
personal combat, he sent against him Starkad,1 a champion of
approved daring, with his band of seven sons, to challenge
and hVht with him. Ragnar took his three sons to share the
battle with him, engaged in the sight of both armies, and came
out of the combat triumphant. Now Biorn, because he had in-
flicted slaughter on the foe without hurt to himself, gained from
the strength of his sides, which were like iron, a perpetual name
[Ironsides]. This victory emboldened Ragnar to hope that he
could overcome any peril, and he attacked and slew Sorle with
the entire forces he wras leading. He presented Biorn with the
lordship of Sweden for his conspicuous bravery and service
Then for a little interval he rested from wars, and chanced to
fall deeply in love with a certain woman. In order to find
some means of approaching and winning her the more readily,
he courted her father [Esbern] by showing him the most obliging
ami attentive kindness. He often invited him to banquets, ami
received him with lavish courtesy. When he came, lie paid

1 Starkad] Scarchdhum, corrupt for Starcadhum.

HOOK NINE. 371

him the respect of rising, and when he sat, he honoured
hi in with a seat next to himself. He also often comforted [307]
him with gifts, and at times with the most kindly speech.
The man saw that no merits of his own could be the cause of
all this distinction, and casting over the matter every way in
his mind, he perceived that the generosity of his monarch
was caused by his love for his daughter, and that he coloured
this lustful purpose with the name of kindness. But, that
he might balk the cleverness of the lover, however well
calculated, he had the girl watched all the more carefully that
he saw her beset by secret aims and obstinate methods. But
Ragnar, who was comforted by the surest tidings of her con-
sent, went to the farmhouse in which she was kept, and fancy-
ing that love must find out a way, repaired alone to a certain
peasant in a neighbouring lodging. In the morning he
exchanged dress with the women, and went in female attire,
and stood by his mistress as she was unwinding wool.
Cunningly, to avoid betrayal, he set his hands to the work of
a maiden, though they were little skilled in the art. In the
night he embraced the maiden and gained his desire. When
her time drew near, and the girl growing big, betrayed her
outraged chastity, the father, not knowing to whom his
daughter had given herself to be defiled, persisted in asking
the girl herself who was the unknown seducer. She stead-
fastly affirmed that she had had no one to share her bed
except her handmaid, and he made the affair over to the king
to search into. He would not allow an innocent servant to be
branded with an extraordinary charge, and was not ashamed
to prove another's innocence by avowing his own guilt. By
this generosity he partially removed the woman's reproach, and
prevented an absurd report from being sown in the ears of
the wicked. Also he added, that the son to be born of her was
of his own line, and that he wished him to be named Ubbe.
When this son had grown up somewhat, his wit, despite his
tender years, equalled the discernment of manhood. For he
took to loving his mother, since she had had converse with a

B B 2

:*72 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

noble bed, but cast off all respect for his father, because he
had stooped to a union too lowly.

After this Ragnar prepared an expedition against the
Hellespontines, and summoned an assembly of the Danes,
promising that he would give the people most wholesome
laws. He had enacted before that each father of a household
should offer for service that one among his sons whom he
esteemed least ; but now he enacted that each should arm
[308] the son who was stoutest of hand or of most approved loyalty.
Thereon, taking all the sons he had by Thora,in addition toUbbe,
he attacked, crushed in sundry campaigns, and subdued the
Hellespont with its king Dia. At last he involved the same
king in disaster after disaster, and slew him. Dia's sons,
Dia and Daxo, who had before married the daughters of
the Russian king, begged forces from their father-in-law, and
rushed with most ardent courage to the work of avenging
their father. But Ragnar, when he saw their boundless
army, distrusted his own forces ; and he put brazen horses1 on
wheels that could be drawn easily, took them round on
carriages that would turn, and ordered that the}r should be
driven with the utmost force against the thickest ranks of
the enemy. This device served so well to break the line
of the foe, that the Danes' hope of conquest seemed to lie
more in the engine than in the soldiers : for its insupportable
weight overwhelmed whatever it struck. Thus one of the
leaders was killed, while one made off' in flight, and the
whole army of the area of the Hellespont retreated. The
Scythians, also, who were closely related by blood to Daxo
on the mother's side, are said to have been crushed in the
same disaster. Their province was made over to Hwitserk,
and the king of the Russians, trusting little in his strength,
hastened to fly out of the reach of the terrible arms of
Ragnar.

Now Ragnar had spent almost five years in sea-roving, and
had quickly compelled all other nations to submit; but he

1 Horses] equos. A confused account of some old traditional stratagem.

BOOK NINE. 373

found the Perms in open defiance of bis sovereignty. He had
just conquered them, but their loyalty was weak. When
they heard that he had come, they cast spells upon the
sky,1 stirred up the clouds, and drove them into most furious
storms. This for some time prevented the Danes from voyag-
ing, and caused their supply of food to fail. Then, again, the
storm suddenly abated, and now they were scorched by
the most fervent and burning heat ; nor was this plague
any easier to bear than the great and violent cold had been.
Thus the mischievous excess in both directions affected their
bodies alternately, and injured them by an immoderate
increase first of cold and then of heat. Moreover dysentery
killed most of them. So the mass of the Danes, being pent in by
the dangerous state of the weather, perished of the bodily
plague that arose on every side. And when Ragnar saw that he
was hindered, not so much by a natural as by a factitious
tempest, he held on his voyage as best he could, and got
to the country of the Kurlanders and Sembs, who paid zealous
honour to his might and majesty, as if he were the most
revered of conquerors. This service enraged the king all the
more against the arrogance of the men of Permland, and he
attempted to avenge his slighted dignity by a sudden attack. [309]
Their king, whose name is not known, was struck with panic
at such a sudden invasion of the enemy, and at the same time
had no heart to join battle with them ; and fled to Matul, the
prince of Finmark. He, trusting in the great skill of his
archers, harassed with impunity the army of Ragnar, which
was wintering in Permland. For the Finns, who are wont to
glide on slippery timbers,2 scud along at whatever pace they
will, and are considered to be able to approach or depart very
quickly ; for as soon as they have damaged the enemy they
fly away as speedily as they approach, nor is the retreat they
make quicker than their charge. Thus their vehicles and their

1 Cast spells upon the sky] For the Permlanders bewitching the
weather, compare Bk. 1, p. 30, above.

2 Glide on slippery timbers] For the snow-skates of the Finns, cp.
Bk. v, p. 203, above.

374 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

bodies are so nimble that they acquire the utmost expertness
both in advance and flight. It may be supposed what amaze-
ment filled Ragnar at the poorness of his fortunes when he
saw that lie, who had conquered Rome at its pinnacle of
power, was dragged by an unarmed and uncouth race into the
utmost peril. He, therefore, who had signally crushed the
most glorious flower of the Roman soldiery, and the forces of
a most great and serene captain, now yielded to a base mob
with the poorest and slenderest equipment ; and he whose
lustre in war the might of the strongest race on earth had
failed to tarnish, was now too weak to withstand the tiny band
of a miserable tribe. Hence, with that force which had helped
him bravely to defeat the most famous pomp in all the world
and the weightiest weapon of military power, and to subdue
in the field all that thunderous foot, horse, and encampment :
with this he had now, stealthily and like a thief, to endure
the attacks of a wretched and obscure populace ; nor must
he blush to stain by a treachery in the night that noble
glory of his which had been won in the light of day ; for he
took to a secret ambuscade instead of open bravery. This
affair was as profitable in its issue as it was unhandsome in
the doing. He was as much pleased at the flight of the
Finns as he had been at that of Karl, and owned that he had
found more strength in that defenceless people than in the
best equipped soldiery ; for he found the heaviest weapons of
the Romans easier to bear than the light darts of this ragged
tribe. Here, after killing the king of the Perms and routing
the king of the Finns, Ragnar set an eternal memorial of his
victory on the rocks, which bore the characters of his deeds
on their face, and looked down upon them.
[310] Meanwhile Ubbe was led by his grandfather Esbern to
conceive an unholy desire for the throne ; and, casting away
all thought of the reverence due to his father, he claimed
the emblem of royalty for his own head. And when Ragnar
heard of his arrogance from K either and Thorkill, the earls of
Sweden, he made a hasty voyage towards Gothland. Esbern,
finding that these men were attached with a singular loyalty

BOOK NINE. 875

to the side of Rasmar, tried to bribe them to desert the king.
But they did not swerve from their purpose, and replied that
their will depended on that of Biorn, declaring that not a
single Swede would dare to do what went against his pleasure.
Esbern speedily made an attempt on Biorn himself, addressing
him most courteously through his envoys. Biorn said that he
would never lean more to treachery than to good faith, and
judged that it would be a most abominable thing to prefer the
favour of an infamous brother to the love of a most righteous
father. The envoys themselves he punished with hanging,
because they counselled him to so grievous a crime. The
Swedes, moreover, slew the rest of the train of the envoys in
the same way, as a punishment for their mischievous advice.
So Esbern, thinking that his secret and stealthy manoeuvres
did not succeed fast enough, mustered his forces openly, and
went publicly forth to war. But Iwar, the governor of Jut-
land, seeing no righteousness on either side of the impious
conflict, avoided an unholy war by voluntary exile. Ragnar
attacked and slew Esbern in the ba}T that is called in Latin
Viridis1 ; he cut off the dead man's head and bade it be set upon
the ship's prow, a dreadful sight for the seditious. But Ubbe
took to flight, and again attacked his father, having revived the
war in Zealand. Ubbe's ranks broke, and he was assailed single-
handed from all sides ; but he felled so many of the enemy's
line that he was surrounded with a pile of the corpses of the
foe as with a strong bulwark, and easily checked his assail-
ants from approaching. At last he was overwhelmed by the
thickening masses of the enemy, captured, and taken off to be
laden with public fetters. By immense violence he disen-
tangled his chains and cut them away. But when he tried to
sunder and rend the bonds that were [then] put upon him, he
could not in any wise escape his bars.2 But when Iwar heard

1 The bay that is called in Latin Viridis] Gronsund, between the isles
of Falster and Mone.— M.

2 By immense violence . . . escape his bars] At ille, immensa vi
extricatis recisisque catenis, indites sibi 'nexus disiicere ac lactrare ((dorsvs,
tmllis obicem modis effugere potiiit. Here obicem is the conjecture of M,

370 SAXO ORAMMATICUS.

that the rising in his country had been quelled by the punish-
ment of the rebel, he went to Denmark. Ragnar received
him with the greatest honour, because, while the unnatural
war had raged its fiercest, he had behaved with the most
entire filial respect.

Meanwhile Daxo long and vainly tried to overcome Hwit-
serk, who ruled over Sweden1 ; but at last he entrapped him
[311] under pretence of making a peace, and attacked him. Hwit-
serk received him hospitably, but Daxo had prepared an
army with weapons, who were to feign to be trading, ride
into the city in carriages, and break with a night-attack
into the house of their host. Hwitserk smote this band of
robbers with such a slaughter that he was surrounded with
a heap of his enemies' bodies, and could only be taken by
letting down ladders from above. Twelve of his companions,
who were captured at the same time by the enemy, were given
leave to go back to their country ; but they gave up their
lives for their king, and chose to share the dangers of another
rather than be quit of their own. But Daxo, moved with
compassion at the extreme beauty of Hwitserk, had not the
heart to pluck the budding blossom of that noble nature, and
offered him not only his life, but his daughter in marriage,
with a dowry of half his kingdom ; choosing rather to
spare his comeliness than to punish his bravery. But the

for the obitum of the ed. pr., a reading inconsistent with fact and with
what follows about the fortune of Ubbe, and is therefore not saved by
the tamen which St. proposed to insert after nullis. The conjecture is
strengthened by an old [lrst] MS. quoted by St., which runs vix idlis
obicum nodis constringi potuit. But there is still a grammatical awkward-
ness in making the inditos nexus refer to a get of bonds subsequent to the

I'll,, ,is.

1 Hwitserk, who ruled over Sweden] Withsereum, Suetiae imperantem.
But, on p. 372, above, the same man is spoken of as governing the
Soythians, that is, a region vaguely conceived as far in the east. M.
explains the difficulty by supposing "Sweden" to be used here in the
sense of some fabulous region. "Great Sweden" was a name used by
Icelanders for the doubtful quarters east of Finland, and Saxo may have
copied the word from his authority without understanding it perfectly.

BOOK NINE. 377

other, in the greatness of his soul, valued as nothing the life
which he was given on sufferance, and spurned his safety
as though it were some trivial benefit. Of his own will he
embraced the sentence of doom, saying, that Ragnar would
exact a milder vengeance for his son if he found that he had
made his own choice in selecting the manner of his death. The
enemy wondered at his rashness, and promised that he should
die by the manner of death which he should choose for his
punishment. This leave the young man accepted as a great
kindness, and begged that he might be bound and burned
with his friends. Daxo speedily complied with his prayers
that craved for death, and by way of kindness granted him
the end that he had chosen. When Ragnar heard of this, he
began to grieve stubbornly even unto the death, and not only
put on the garb of mourning, but, in the exceeding sorrow of
his soul, took to his bed and showed his grief by groaning.
But his wife, who had more than a man's courage, chid his
weakness, and put heart into him with her manful admonitions.
Drawing his mind off from his woe, she bade him be zealous in
the pursuit of war ; declaring that it was better for so brave
a father to avenge the bloodstained ashes of his son w^ith
weapons than writh tears. She also told him not to whimper
like a woman, and get as much disgrace by his tears as he had
once earned glory by his valour. Upon these words Ragnar
began to fear lest he should destroy his ancient name for
courage by his womanish sorrow ; so, shaking off his melan-
choly garb and putting away his signs of mourning, he re-
vived his sleeping valour with hopes of speedy vengeance.
Thus do the weak sometimes nerve the spirits of the strong.
So he put his kingdom in charge of I war, and embraced with
a father's love Ubbe, who was now restored to his ancient
favour. Then he transported his fleet over to Russia, took
Daxo, bound him in chains, and sent him away to be kept in [312]
Utgard.1 It was understood that Ragnar showed on this

1 Utgard] Saxo, rationalising as usual, turns the mythical home of
the giants into some terrestrial place in his vaguely-defined Eastern
Europe.

378 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

occasion the most merciful moderation towards the slayer of
his dearest son, since he sufficiently satisfied the vengeance
which he desired, by the exile of the culprit rather than his
death. This compassion shamed the Russians out of any
further rage against such a king, who could not he driven
even by the most grievous wrongs to inflict death upon his
prisoners. Ragnar soon took Daxo back into favour, and
restored him to his country, upon his promising that he would
every year pay him his tribute barefoot, like a suppliant, with
twelve elders, also unshod. For he thought it better to punish
a prisoner and a suppliant gently, than to draw the axe of
bloodshed ; better to punish that proud neck with constant
slavery than to sever it once and for all. Then he went on
and appointed his son Erik, surnamed Wind-hat, over Sweden.
Here, while Fridleif and Si ward were serving under him, he
found that the Norwegians and the Scots had wrongfully con-
ferred the title of king on two other men. So he first over-
threw the usurper to the power of Norway, and let Biorn have
the country for his own benefit.

Then he summoned Biorn and Erik, ravaged the Orkneys,
landed at last on the territory of the Scots, and in a three-days'
battle wearied out their king Murial, and slew him. But
Ragnar's sons Dunwat and Radbard, after fighting nobly, were
slain by the enemy. So that the victory their father won was
stained with their blood. He returned to Denmark, and found
that his wife Swanloga had in the meantime died of disease.
Straightway he sought medicine for his grief in loneliness, and
patiently confined the grief of his sick soul within the walls of
his house. But this bitter sorrow was driven out of him by
the sudden arrival of Iwar, who had been expelled from the
kingdom. For the Gauls had made him fly, and had wrong-
fully bestowed royal power on a certain Ella, the son of Hame.
Ragnar took Iwar to guide him, since he was acquainted with
the country, gave orders for a fleet, and approached the har-
bour called York.1 Here he disembarked his forces, and

1 York] The MS. has Norvicus by mistake for Ioruicus. See the
0. E. Chronirlr, 867.

BOOK NINE. 379

after a battle which lasted three clays, he made Ella, who
had trusted in the valour of the Gauls, desirous to fly. The
affair cost much blood to the English and very little to the
Danes. Here Ragnar completed a year of conquest, and then,
summoning his sons to help him, he went to Ireland, slew its [3*3]
kino- Melbrik, besieged Dublin, which was rilled with wealth
of the barbarians, attacked it, and received its surrender.
There he lay in camp for a year ; and then, sailing through the
midland sea, he made his way to the Hellespont.1 He won
signal victories as he crossed all the intervening countries, and
no ill-fortune anywhere checked his steady and prosperous
advance.

Harald, meanwhile, with the adherence of certain Danes who
were cold-hearted servants in the army of Ragnar, disturbed
his country with renewed sedition, and came forward claiming
the title of king. He was met by the arms of Ragnar returning
from the Hellespont ; but being unsuccessful, and seeing that
his resources of defence at home were exhausted, he went to
ask help of Ludwig,2 who was then stationed at Mainz. But
Ludwig, tilled with the greatest zeal for promoting his religion,
imposed a condition on the Barbarian, promising him help if
he would agree to follow the worship of Christ. For he said
there could be no agreement of hearts between those who em-
braced discordant creeds. Anyone, therefore, who asked for
help, must first have a fellowship in religion. No men could
be partners in great works who were separated by a different
form of worship. This decision procured not only salvation
for Ludwig's guest, but the praise of piety for Ludwig himself,
who, as soon as Harald had gone to the holy font, accordingly
strengthened him with Saxon auxiliaries. Trusting in these,
Harald built a temple in the land of Sleswik with much care
and cost, to be hallowed to God. Thus he borrowed a pattern
of the most holy way from the worship of Rome. He unhallowed
the error of misbelievers, pulled down the shrines, outlawed the
sacrificers, abolished the [heathen] priesthood, and was the

1 Hellespont] Here Hellespont may stand for Gibraltar Straits.

2 Lultvig] Louis the Pious, son of Charles the Great.

380 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

first to introduce the religion of Christianity to his uncouth
country. Rejecting the worship of demons, he was zealous for
that of God. Lastly, he observed with the most scrupulous
care whatever concerned the protection of religion. But he
began with more piety than success. For Ragnar came up,
outraged the holy rites he had brought in, outlawed the true
faith, restored the false one to its old position, and bestowed
on the ceremonies the same honour as before. As for Harald,
he deserted and cast in his lot with sacrilege. For though
he was a notable ensample by his introduction of religion,
yet he was the first who was seen to neglect it, and this
illustrious promoter of holiness proved a most infamous for-
saker of the same.

Meanwhile Ella betook himself to the Irish, and put to the
sword or punished all those who were closely and loyally at-
tached to Ragnar. Then Raimar attacked him with his fleet,
but, by the just visitation of the Omnipotent, was openly
[314] punished for disparaging religion. For when he had been
taken and cast into prison, his guilty limbs were given to
serpents to devour, and adders found ghastly sustenance in the
fibres of his entrails. His liver was eaten away, and a snake,
like a deadly executioner, beset his very heart. Then in a
courageous voice he recounted all his deeds in order, and at
the end of his recital added the following sentence : " If the
porkers knew the punishment of the boar-pig, surely they
would break into the sty and hasten to loose him from his
affliction." At this saying, Ella conjectured that some of his
sons were yet alive, and bade that the executioners should
stop and the vipers be removed. The servants ran up to
accomplish his bidding ; but Ragnar was dead, and forestalled
the order of the king. Surely we must say that this man had
a double lot for his share ? By one, he had a fleet unscathed,
an empire well-inclined, and immense power as a rover ; while
the other inflicted on him the ruin of his fame, the slaughter
of his soldiers, and a most bitter end. The executioner beheld
him beset with poisonous beasts, and asps gorging on that
heart which he had borne steadfast in the face of every peril.

BOOK NINE. 381

Thus a most glorious conqueror declined to the piteous lot of
a prisoner ; a lesson that no man should put too much trust
in fortune.

I war heard of this disaster as he happened to be looking on
at the games. Nevertheless, he kept an unmoved countenance,
and in nowise broke down. Not only did he dissemble his
irrief and conceal the news of his father's death, but he did not
even allow a clamour to arise, and forbade the panic-stricken
people to leave the scene of the sports. Thus, loth to in-
terrupt the spectacle by the ceasing of the games, he neither
clouded his countenance nor turned his eyes from public merri-
ment to dwell upon his private sorrow ; for he would not
fall suddenly into the deepest melancholy from the height of
festal joy, or seem to behave more like an afflicted son than a
blithe captain.1 But when Siward heard the same tidings, he
loved his father more than he cared for his own pain, and in
his distraction plunged deeply into his foot the spear he
chanced to be holding, dead to all bodily troubles in his stony
sadness. For he wished to hurt some part of his body
severely, that he might the more patiently bear the wound in
his soul. By this act he showed at once his bravery and his
grief, and bore his lot like a son who was both afflicted and
steadfast. But Biorn received the tidings of his father's [315]
death while he was playing at dice,2 and squeezed so violently
the piece that he was grasping that he wrung the blood
from his fingers and shed it on the table ; whereon he said
that assuredly the cast of fate was more fickle than that of
the very die which he was throwing. When Ella heard this,
he judged that the father's death had been borne with the
toughest and most stubborn spirit by that son of the three
who had paid no filial respect to his decease ; and therefore he
dreaded the bravery of Iwar most. But Iwar went towards
England, and when he saw that his fleet was not strono-

1 See note on the double of this tale, p. 389, below.

2 Dice] tesstrarum. M. thinks there is an allusion to chess, but the
word alea, used immediately after, points to "tables", either back-
gammon or an archaic kind of draughts.

382 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

enough to join battle with the enemy, he chose to be cunning
rather than bold, and tried a shrewd trick on Ella, begging as
a pledge of peace between them a strip of land as great as he
could cover with a horse's hide. He gained his request, for the
king supposed that it would cost little, and thought himself
happy that so strong a foe begged for a little boon instead of a
great one ; supposing that a tiny skin would cover but a very
little land. But Iwar cut the hide out and lengthened it into
very slender thongs, thus enclosing a piece of ground large
enough to build a city on. Then Ella came to repent of his
lavislmess, and tardily set to reckoning the size of the hide.
measuring the little skin more narrowly now that it was cut
up than when it was whole. For that which he had thought
would encompass a little strip of ground, he saw lying wide
over a great estate. Iwar brought into the city, when he
founded it, supplies that would serve amply for a siege,
wishing the defences to be as good against scarcity as against
an enemy.

Meantime Siward and Biorn came up with a fleet of 400
ships, and with open challenge declared war against the king.
This they did at the appointed time ; and when they had
captured him, they ordered the figure of an eagle1 to be cut in
his back, rejoicing to crush their most ruthless foe by marking
him with the cruellest of birds. Not satisfied with imprinting
a wound on him, they salted the mangled flesh. Thus Ella
was done to death, and Biorn and Siward went back to their
own kingdoms. Iwar governed England for two years.
Meanwhile the Danes were stubborn in revolt, and made war,
and delivered the sovereignty publicly to a certain Siward and
to Erik, both of the royal line. The sons of Eagnar, together
with a fleet of 1,700 ships, attacked them at Sleswik, and de-
stroyed them in a conflict which lasted six months. Barrows
remain to tell the tale. The sound on which the war was con-
ducted has gained equal glory by the death of Siward. And now
[316] the royal stock was almost extinguished, saving only the sons of

1 Figure of an eagle] "This operation the Icelanders called rista dm a
bah iinom" — M. Ella was slain in 807.

BOOK NINE. 383

Ragnar. Then, when Biorn and Erik had gone home, Iwar and
Siward settled in Denmark, that they might curb the rebels
with a stronger rein, setting Agnar to govern England.
A.gnar was stung because the English rejected him, and, with
the help of Siward, chose, rather than foster the insolence of
the province that despised him, to dispeople it and leave its
fields, which were matted in decay, with none to till them.
He covered the richest land of the island with the most
hideous desolation, thinking it better to be lord of a wilder-
ness than of a headstrong country. After this he wished to
avenge Erik, who had been slain in Sweden by the malice
of a certain Osten. But while he was narrowly bent on
avenging another, he squandered his own blood on the foe ;
and while he was eagerly trying to punish the slaughter of
his brother, sacrificed his own life to brotherly love.

Thus Siward, by the sovereign vote of the whole Danish
assembly, received the empire of his father. But after the
defeats he had inflicted everywhere he was satisfied with the
honour he received at home, and liked better to be famous
with the gown than with the sword. He ceased to be a man
of camps, and changed from the fiercest of despots into the
most punctual guardian of peace. He found as much honour
in ease and leisure as he had used to think lay in many
victories. Fortune so favoured his change of pursuits, that
no foe ever attacked him, nor he any foe. He died, and Erik,
who was a very young child, inherited his nature, rather
than his realm or his tranquillity. For Erik, the brother of
Harald, despising his exceedingly tender years, invaded the
country with rebels, and seized the crown ; nor was he
ashamed to assail the lawful infant sovereign, and to assume an
unrightful power. In thus bringing himself to despoil a feeble
child of the kingdom he showed himself the more unworthy
of it. Thus he stripped the other of his throne, but himself
of all his virtues, and cast all manliness out of his heart,
when he made war upon a cradle : for where covetousness
and ambition flamed, love of kindred could find no place
But this brutality was requited by the wrath of a divine

.384 SAXO GRAMMATKTS.

vengeance. For the war between this man and Gudorni,
the son of Harald, ended suddenly with such a slaughter
that they were both slain, with numberless others ; and the
royal stock of the Danes, now worn out by the most terrible
massacres, was reduced to the only son of the above Siward.

This man [Erik] won the fortune of a throne by losing his
kindred ; it was luckier for him to have his relations dead than
[317] alive. He forsook the example of all the rest, and hastened
to tread in the steps of his grandfather ; for he suddenly
came out as a most zealous practitioner of roving. And would
that he had not shown himself rashly to inherit the spirit of
Ragnar, by his abolition of Christian worship ! For he con-
tinually tortured all the most religious men, or stripped them
of their property and banished them. But it were idle for me to
blame the man's beginnings when I am to praise his end. For
that life is more laudable of which the foul beginning is checked
by a glorious close, than that which begins commendably but
declines into faults and infamies. For Erik, upon the healthy
admonitions of Ansgarius,1 laid aside the errors of his impious
heart, and atoned for whatsoever he had done amiss in the
insolence thereof : showing himself as strong in the observance
of religion as he had been in slighting it. Thus he not only
took a draught of more wholesome teaching with obedient
mind, but wiped off early stains by his purity at the end. He
had a son Kanute by the daughter of Gudorm, who was also
the granddaughter of Harald ; and him he left to survive his
death.

While this child remained in infancy a guardian was
required for the pupil and for the realm. But, inasmuch it
seemed to most people either invidious or difficult to give
the aid that this office needed, it was resolved that a man
should be chosen by lot. For the wisest of the Danes, fearing
much to make a choice by their own will in so lofty a matter,
allowed more voice to external chance than to their own
opinions, and entrusted the issue of the selection rather to

1 Ansgarius] See Adam of Bremen for the life of this Evangelist and
of Eric.

BOOK NINE. 385

luck than to sound counsel. The issue was that a certain
Enni-gnup [Steep-brow], a man of the highest and most entire
virtue, was forced to put his shoulder to this heavy burden ;
and when he entered on the administration which chance had
decreed, he oversaw, not only the early rearing of the king, but
the affairs of the whole people. For which reason some who are
little versed in our history give this man a central place in
its annals. But when Kanute had passed through the period
of boyhood, and had in time grown to be a man, he left those
who had done him the service of bringing him up, and turned
from an almost hopeless youth to the practice of unhoped-for
virtue ; being deplorable for this reason only, that he passed
from life to death without the tokens of the Christian faith.

But soon the sovereignty passed to his son Frode. This
man's fortune, increased by arms and warfare, rose to such
a height of prosperity that he brought back to the ancient
yoke the provinces which had once revolted from the Danes,
and bound them in their old obedience. He also came forward
to be baptised with holy water in England, which had for [318]
some while past been versed in Christianity. But he desired
that his personal salvation should overflow and become
general, and begged that Denmark should be instructed in
divinity by Agapete, who was then Pope of Rome. But he
was cut off before his prayers attained this wish. His death
betel before the arrival of the messengers from Rome : and
indeed his intention was better than his fortune, and he won
as great a reward in heaven for his intended piety as others
are vouchsafed for their achievement.

His son Gorm, who had the surname of "The Englishman",
because he was born in England, gained the sovereignty in
the island on his father's death ; but his fortune, though it
came soon, did not last long. He left England for Denmark
to put it in order ; but a long misfortune was the fruit
of this short absence. For the English, who thought that
their whole chance of freedom lay in his being away, planned
an open revolt from the Danes, and in hot haste took heart to
rebel. But the greater the hatred and contempt of England,

0 c

386 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

tli • greater the loyal attachment of Denmark to the king.
Thus while he stretched out his two hands to both provinces
in his desire for sway, he gained one, but lost the lordship
of the other irretrievably ; for he never made any bold effort
to regain it. So hard is it to keep a hold on very large
empires.

After this man his son Harald came to be king of Den-
mark : he is half- forgotten by posterity, and lacks all record
for famous deeds, because he rather preserved than extended
the possessions of the realm.

After this the throne was obtained by Gorm, a man whose
soul was ever hostile to religion, and who tried to efface all
regard for Christ's worshippers, as though they were the most
abominable of men. All those who shared this rule of life
lie harassed with divers kinds of injuries, and incessantly
pursued with whatever slanders he could. Also, in order
to restore the old worship to the shrines, he razed to its
lowest foundations, as though it were some unholy abode of
impiety, a temple which religious men had founded in a
stead in Sleswik ; and those whom he did not visit with
tortures he punished by the demolition of the holy chapel.
Though this man was thought notable for his stature, his mind
did not answer to his body1 ; for he kept himself so well sated
with power that he rejoiced more in saving than increasing
his dignity, and thought it better to guard his own than to
[3 [9] attack what belonged to others : caring more to look to what
he had than to swell his havings.

This man was counselled by the elders to celebrate the rites
of marriage, and he wooed Thyra, the daughter of Ethelred, the
king of the English, for his wife. She surpassed other women
in seriousness and shrewdness, and laid the condition on her
suitor that she would not marry him till she had received
Denmark as a dowry. This compact was made between
them, and she was betrothed to Gorm. But on the first
night that she went up on to the marriage-bed, she prayed

1 Mind did not answer to his body] G »rm was called Loghe, the
sluggish.

BOOK NINE. 387

her husband most earnestly that she should be allowed to go
for three days free from intercourse with man. For she
resolved to have no pleasure of love till she had learned by
some omen in a vision that her marriage would be fruitful.
Thus, under pretence of self-control, she deferred her
experience of marriage, and veiled under a show of modesty
her wish to learn about her issue. She put off lustful inter-
course, inquiring, under a feint of chastity, into the fortune she
would have in continuing her line. Some conjecture that she
refused the pleasures of the nuptial couch in order to win her
mate over to Christianity by her abstinence. But the youth,
though he was most ardently bent on her love, yet chose to
regard the continence of another more than his own desires,
and thought it nobler to control the impulses of the night than
to rebuff the prayers of his weeping mistress; for he thought
that her beseechings, really coming from calculation, had to do
with modesty. Thus it befell that he who should have done
a husband's part made himself the guardian of her chastity,
so that the reproach of an infamous mind should not be
his at the very beginning of his marriage ; as though he
had yielded more to the might of passion than to his own
self-respect. Moreover, that he might not seem to forestall by
his lustful embraces the love which the maiden would not
grant, he not only forbore to let their sides that were next one
another touch, but even severed them by his drawn sword,
and turned the bed into a divided shelter for his bride and
himself. But he soon tasted in the joyous form of a dream the
pleasure which he postponed from free lovingkindness.1 For,
when his spirit was steeped in slumber, he thought that two
birds glided down from the privy parts of his wife, one larger
than the other ; that they poised their bodies aloft and soared
swiftly to heaven, and, when a little time had elapsed, came
back and sat on either of his hands. A second, and again a
third time, when they had been refreshed by a short rest, they
ventured forth to the air with outspread wings. At last the

1 Gorm's dream is told in Knytlinga Saga, where traces of the original
verse-form of part of it appear.

cc 2

388 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

lesser of them came back without his fellow, and with wings
[320] smeared with blood. He was amazed with this imagination,
and, being in a deep sleep, uttered a cry to betoken his
astonishment, filling the whole house with an uproarious shout.
When his servants questioned him, he related his vision ; and
Thyra, thinking that she would be blest with offspring, forbore
her purpose to put off her marriage, eagerly relaxing the
chastity for which she had so hotly prayed. Exchanging
celibacy for love, she granted her husband full joy of
herself, requiting his virtuous self-restraint with the fulnc-s
of permitted intercourse, and telling him that she would not
have married him at all, had she not inferred from these
images in the dream which he had related, the certainty of her
being fruitful. Thus by a device as cunning as it was strange,
her pretended modesty passed into an acknowledgment of her
future offspring. Nor did fate disappoint her hopes. Soon she
was the fortunate mother of Kaiiute and Harald. When these
princes had attained man's estate, they put forth a fleet and
quelled the reckless insolence of the Sclavs. Neither did they
leave England free from an attack of the same kind. Ethelred
was delighted with their spirit, and rejoiced at the violence
his nephews offered him ; accepting an abominable wrong as
though it were the richest of benefits. For he saw far more
merit in their bravery than in piety. Thus lie thought it
nobler to be attacked by foes than courted by cowards, and
felt that he saw in their valiant promise a sample of their
future manhood. For he could not doubt that they would
some day attack foreign realms, since they so boldly claimed
those of their mother. He so much preferred their wrongdoing
to their service, that he passed over his daughter, and
bequeathed England in his will to these two, not scrupling to
set the name of grandfather before that of father. Nor was
he unwise ; for he knew that it beseemed men to enjoy the
sovereignty rather than women, and considered that he ought
to separate the lot of his unwarlike daughter from that of her
valiant sons. Hence Thyra saw her sons inheriting the uoods
of her father, not grudging to be disinherited herself. For she

BOOK NINE. 389

thought that the preference above herself was honourable to
her, rather than insulting. These same men enriched them-
selves with great gains from sea-roving, and most confidently
aspired to lay hands on Ireland. Dublin, which was con-
sidered the capital of the country, was besieged. Its king
went into a wood adjoining the city with a few very skilled [321]
archers, and with treacherous art surrounded Kanute1 (who was
present with a great throng of soldiers witnessing the show of
the games by night), and aimed a deadly arrow at him from
afar. It struck the body of the king in front, and pierced him
with a mortal wound. But Kanute feared that the enemy
would greet his peril with an outburst of delight. He
therefore wished his disaster to be kept dark ; and, sum-
moning voice with his last breath, he ordered the games to be
gone through without disturbance. By this device he made
the Danes masters of Ireland ere he made his own death
known to the Irish. Who would not bewail the end of such
a man, whose self-mastery served to give the victory to his
soldiers, by reason of the wisdom that outlasted his life ? For
the safety of the Danes was most seriously endangered, and
was nearty involved in the most deadly peril ; yet because
they obeyed the dying orders of their general they presently
triumphed over those they feared. At this time Gorm had
reached the extremity of his days, having passed a great
succession of years in blindness, and had prolonged his old
age to the utmost bounds of the human lot, being more
anxious for the life and prosperity of his sons than for the
few days he had to breathe. But so great was his love for his
elder son that he swore that he would slay with his own hand
whosoever first brought him news of his death. As it chanced,

1 Surrounded Kanute] Editors have noticed the inconsequence of this
tale, and the pointlessness of the game* being held by night during a
siege in K^nute's presence. But the trait of Kanute hiding his wound is
a natural and Northern, as well as a Spartan, one, and finds perhaps its
strongest expression in English poetry in the scene of John Ford's
tragedy. The Broken Heart, where Calantha dances on and on smiling as
fatal tidings arrive. See p. 381, above. As to the games being held at
night, we continually read of feasting and sport by the light of camp-fires.

390 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Thyra heard sure tidings that this son had perished. But
when no man durst openly hint this to Gorm, she fell back on
her cunning to defend her, and revealed by her deeds the
mischance which she durst not speak plainly out. For she
took the royal robes off her husband and dressed him in filthy
garments, bringing him other signs of grief also, to explain
the cause of her mourning ; for the ancients were wont to
use such things in the performance of obsequies, bearing
witness by their garb to the bitterness of their sorrow. Then
said Gorm : " Dost thou declare to me the death of Kanute1?"
And Thyra said : " That is proclaimed by thy presage, not by
mine." By this answer she made out her lord a dead man and
herself a widow, and had to lament her husband as soon as
her son. Thus, while she announced the fate of her son to
her husband, she united them in death, and followed the
obsequies of both with equal mourning ; shedding the tears of
a wife upon the one and of a mother upon the second ; though
at that moment she ought to have been cheered with comfort
rather than crushed with disasters.

1 Kanute] Here the vernacular is far finer. The old king notices
"Denmark is drooping, dead must my son be!" puts on the signs of
mourning, and dies.

END OF BOOK NIXE.

APPENDIX I.

PASSAGES FROM LATER BOOKS OF SAXO.

Story of Toke and the Apple (Bk. x, p. 329, ed. Holder).

One Toke, who had served some while with the king [Harald
Bluet oth], had made many men foes to his virtues by the
services wherein he overpassed the zeal of his comrades.
Talking in his cups among the feasters, he chanced to boast
that if an apple, however small, were set at a distance upon a
stick, he would hit it with the first shaft he aimed. This
speech, catching the ears of his detractors, reached the hearing
of the king. But the unscrupulous monarch presently turned
the father's confidence to the peril of the son, and commanded
that this most sweet pledge of Toke's life should be put in the
place of the stick with the apple on his head, and should
suffer wTith his own head for that windy boast, unless he who
made the promise should with the first arrow that he tried
strike the apple off1 it. Thus the treacherous slanders of
others took up his half-tipsy vaunt, and the soldier was forced
by his king's behest to do better than his promises, so that his

words bound him to more than their own consequence

So Toke brought the lad forth, and warned him straitly to
await the singing of the arrow with steadfast ear and
unswerving head, so as not to balk by any slight motion the
successful t"ial of his skill. Also he considered a plan to
remove the 1 id's fear, and made him turn away his face, that
he should not be scared by the sight of the missile. Then he
put out three arrows from the quiver ; the first that he fitted
to the string struck the mark proposed. [Eulogy on father

392 KAXO GRAMMATICUS.

and son.] .... But when the king asked Toke why he had

taken three shafts from the quaver, when lie was to try his
fortunes hut once with the bow, Toke answered, "That I
might avenge on thyself the miss of the first with the point
of the others, lest perchance my innocence might suffer and
thy violence escape."

II.
Allusion to y'lfluiKj story (Bk. xtit, p. 427).

[Magnus, plotting to slay Kanute, sends a Saxon minstrel
who is in the conspiracy, to lure him out to a wood at night.]

Then the minstrel, knowing that Kanute was a great lover
both of the Saxon name and customs, wished to arm him with
caution, but thought that the sanctity of his oath [of con-
spiracy] was in the way of his acting thus. Therefore, thinking
it a sin to betray the matter plainly, he tried to do so

covertly So he purposely started to relate in a noble

song the treachery of Grimhild towards her brethren, trying
by this example of notorious guile to inspire him with fear
of a like fate. [Kanute ignores the hint and perishes.]

III.

The Statue of Suanto-VUus (Bk. xiy, p. 564 sqq.)

[Waldemar I and Absalon lay siege to Arkon in Rtigen, a
city on a ness with precipice walls.]

On a level in the midst of the city was to be seen a wooden
temple of most graceful workmanship, held in honour not only
for the splendour of its ornament, but for the divinity of an
image set up within it. The outside of the building was bright
with careful graving [or painting], whereon sundry shapes
were rudely and uucouthly pictured. There was but one gate
Por entrance. The shrine itself was shut in a double row of
enclosures, the outer whereof was made of walls and covered
with a red summit; while the inner one rested on four pillars.

appendix t. 393

find instead of having walls was gorgeous with hangings, not
communicating with the outer save for the roof and a few
1 fains. In the temple stood a huge image, far overtopping
all human stature, marvellous for its four heads and four
necks, two facing the breast and two the hack. Moreover, of
those in front as well as of those behind, one looked leftwards
and the other rightwards. The beards were figured as
shaven and the hair as clipped ; the skilled workman might
be thought to have copied the fashion of the Riigeners in the
dressing of the heads. In the right hand it held a horn
wrought of divers metals, which the priest, who was versed in
its rites, used to fill every year with new wine, in order to
foresee the crops of the next season from the disposition of
the liquor. In the left there was a representation of a bow,
the arm beino- drawn back to the side. A tunic was figured
reaching to the shanks, which were made of different woods,
and so secretly joined to the knees that the place of the join
could only be detected by narrow scrutiny. The feet were
seen close to the earth, their base being hid underground.
Not far off a bridle and saddle and many emblems of godhead
were visible. Men's marvel at these things was increased by
a sword of notable size, whose scabbard and hilt were not
only excellently graven, but also graced outside with [mounts
or inlaying of] silver. This image was regularly worshipped
in the following way. Once every year, after harvest, a
motley throng from the whole isle would sacrifice beasts for
peace-offering before the temple of the image, and keep
ceremonial feast. Its priest was conspicuous for his long beard
and hair, beyond the common fashion of the country. On the
day before that on which he must sacrifice, he used to sweep
with brooms the shrine, which he had the sole right of entering.
He took heed not to breathe within the building. As often
as he needed to draw or give breath, he would run out to the
door, lest forsooth the divine presence should be tainted with
human breath. On the morrow, the people being at watch
before the doors, he took the cup from the image, and looked
at it narrowly; if any of the liquor put in had gone away

304 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

he thought that this pointed to a scanty harvest for next
year. When he had noted this he bade them keep, against
the future, the corn which they had. If he saw no lessening
in its usual fulness, he foretold fertile crops. So, according to
this omen, he told them to use the harvest of the present year
now thriftily, now generously. Then he poured out the old
wine as a libation at the feet of the image, and filled the
empty cup with fresh ; and, feigning the part of a cupbearer,
he adored the statue, and in a regular form of address prayed
for good increase of wealth and conquests for himself, his
country and its people. This done, he put the cup to his lips,
and drank it up over-fast at an unbroken draught ; refilling
it then with wine, he put it back in the hand of the statue.
Mead-cakes were also placed for offering, round in shape
and great, almost up to the height of a man's stature. The
priest used to put this between himself and the people, and
ask, Whether the men of Riigen could see him ? By this
request he prayed not fox the doom of his people or himself,
but for increase of the coming crops. Then he greeted the
crowd in the name of the image, and bade them prolong their
worship of the god with diligent sacrificing, promising them
sure rewards of their tillage, and victory by sea and land. . . .
[The people keep orgy the rest of the day to please the god.] . . .
Each male and female hung a coin every year as a gift in
worship of the image. It was also allotted a third of the spoil
and plunder, as though these had been got and won by its
protection. This god also had 300 horses appointed to it, and
as many men-at-arms riding them, all of whose gains, either
by arms or theft, were put in the care of the priest. Out of
these spoils he wrought sundry emblems and temple-ornaments
which he consigned to locked coffers containing store of nioiie}r
and piles of time-eaten purple. Here, too, was to be seen
a mass of public and private gifts, the contributions of anxious
«• applicants for blessings. This statue was worshipped with the
tributes of all Sclavonia, and neighbouring kings did not fail
to honour its sacrifice with gifts. . . . [Even Sweyn gave a
wrought cup, and there were smaller shrines.] . . . iUso it

APPENDIX I, 395

possessed a special white horse, the hairs of whose mane and
tail it was thought impious to pluck, and which only the
priest had the privilege of feeding and riding, lest the use of
the divine beast might become common and therefore cheap.
On this horse, in the belief of Riigen, Suanto-Vitus — so
the imacre was called — rode to war against the foes of his
religion. The chief proof was that the horse when stabled
at night was commonly found in the morning bespattered
with mire and sweat, as though he had come from exercise
and travelled leagues. Omens also where taken by this horse,
thus: When war was determined against any district, the
servants set out three rows of spears, two joined crosswise,
each row being planted point downwards in the earth ; the
rows an equal distance apart. When it was time to make the
expedition, after a solemn prayer, the horse was led in harness
out of the porch by the priest. If he crossed the rows with
the right foot before the left it was taken as a lucky omen of
warfare ; if he put the left first, so much as once, the plan of
attacking that district was dropped ; neither was any voyage
finally fixed, until three paces in succession of the fortunate
manner of walking were observed. Also folk faring out on
sundry businesses took an omen concerning their wishes from
their first meeting with the beast. Was the omen happy, they
blithely went on with their journey; was it baleful, they
turned and went home. Nor were these people ignorant of
the use of lots. Three bits of wood, black on one side, white
on the other, were cast into the lap. Fair, meant good luck ;
dusky, ill. Neither were their women free from this sort of
knowledge, for they would sit by the hearth and draw random
lines in the ashes without counting. If these when counted
were even, they were thought to bode success ; if odd, ill-
fortune. [The king goes to attack the town and efface profane
rites. His men make works, but he says these are needless]
because the Riigeners had once been taken by Karl Caesar,
and bidden to honour with tribute Saint Vitus of Corvey,
famous for his sanctified death. But when the conqueror died
they wished to regain freedom, and exchanged slavery for

39 G SAXO GRAMMATTOUS.

superstition, putting up an image at home to which they gave
the name of the holy Vitus, and, scorning the people of Corvey,
they proceeded to transfer the tribute to its worship, saying
that they were content with their own Vitus, and need not
serve a strange one [Vitus would come and avenge himself,
so the king prophesies; the siege is related ; the people trust
their defences, and guard] the tower over the gate only with
emblems and standards. Among these was Stanitia [margin,
Stuatira], notable for size and hue, which received as much
adoration from the Etioeners as almost all the gods together ;
for, shielded by her, they took leave to assail the laws of God
and man, counting nothing unlawful which they liked ....
[the town is taken and fired] p. 574. [The image could not
be prized up without iron tools. Esbern and Snio cut it down].
The image fell to the ground with a crash. Much purple hung
round the temple ; it was gorgeous, but so rotten with decay
that it could not bear the touch. There were also the horns
of woodland beasts, marvellous in themselves and for their
workmanship. A demon in the form of a dusky animal was
seen to quit the inner part and suddenly vanish from the sight
of the bystanders. [The image of Suanto- Vitus is then
chopped into firewood.]

IV.

The Image at Karentia [Garz] in Rilgen (Bk. xiv, p. 577).

[Absalon goes against the Karentines ; takes the town, and
comes upon three temples of a similar kind to that at Arkon.]
The greater temple was situated in the midst of its own ante-
chamber, but both were enclosed with purple [hangings] in-
stead of walls, the summit of the roof being propped merely on
pillars. So the servants, tearing down the gear of the ante-
chamber, at last stretched out their hands to the inmost veil
of the temple. This was removed, and an oaken image which
they called Rugie- Vitus [Riigen's Vitus] was exposed on every
side amid mockery at its hideousness, For the swallows had

APPENDIX I. 397

built their nests beneath its features, and had piled a heap of
droppings on its breast. The god was only fit to have his
effigy thus hideously befouled by birds. Also in its head were
set seven faces, after human likeness, all covered in under a
single poll, and the workman had also bound by its side in a
single belt seven real swords with their scabbards. The eighth
it held in its hand drawn ; this was fitted in the wrist and
fixed very fast with an iron nail, and the hand must be cut off'
before it could be wrenched away ; which led to the image
being mutilated. Its thickness was beyond that of a human
body, but it was so long that Absalon, standing a-tip-toe,
could scarce reach its chin with the little axe he was wont
to carry in his hand. The people had believed this god to pre-
side over wars, as if it had the power of Mars. Nothing in
this image pleased the eye ; its features were hideous with
uncouth graving [or painting]. [It is cut down, and its own
people spurn it and are converted. The assailants go on] to
the image of Pore- Vitus, which was worshipped in the next
town. This was also five-headed, but represented without
weapons. On this being cut down they go to the temple of
Porenutius. This statue, representing four faces, had the fifth
inserted in its bosom ; its left hand touched the brow, and its
right the chin. [It is destroyed.]

APPENDIX II.

SAXO'S HAMLET.
I.

Goethe is said to have been so struck by Saxo's tale of
Amletli, that he thought of himself treating it freety, without
reference to Shakspere. For Shakspere, reading Belleforest
or his translator, rejected or changed so many traits that the
story of Amletli became almost as different as his soul.
Leaving aside Belleforest, with his innocent diffuse plati-
tudes, and the earlier play from which Shakspere may have
worked, let us press out the likenesses, and the differences,
between the rich barbarous tale which Saxo wrought out of
motley sources, and that tale whose message to the modern
world, so far from becoming exhausted, increases.

Amleth, like Hamlet, is a prince, whose father is slain by
his jealous uncle, and whose mother Gerutha (Gertrude)
incestuously marries the murderer, Feng. Feng's guilt is
open, and he crowns his crimes by pretending he had slain
his brother for Gerutha's good ; Shakspere drops these points.
Amletli then feigns madness. We know how Shakspere so
subtilises this motive that the degree of reality in Hamlet's
distraction is disputed, some thinking it wholly real, some
wholly feigned, while others, without attempting to draw a
rigid line, hold that Hamlet is an actor who flings himself
into a part which presently invades his very self. But
there is no doubt about Amletli ; he not only feigns, but
feigns in order to execute a revenge, on the fanciful cruelty
of whose long-considered plan — a whole palace and company
of f casters to be wrapped in one net and flame of destruc-
tion— we are led to think that he sates his imagination for a
whole }rear in advance. Hence the whole play of doubts upon

APPENDIX II 399

Hamlet's intellect, and of vacillations upon his will, is excluded
from the very idea of the old story. Shakspere also omits
the tricks by which Amleth both hides and symbolises his inten-
tion, such as the " crooks" pointed in the fire, and his riddles,
which, indeed, are absent in Belleforest. But the attribute of
riddling speech is, in Hamlet, infinitely developed, and the temp-
tations set in the way of the two princes have marked likenesses.
Amleth's foster-sister is a vague presentiment of Ophelia, even
as the friend who warns Amleth against her is of Horatio. Then
follows the eavesdropping prototype of Polonius, whom Ham-
let runs through1 in his scene with his mother. In Shakspere
or his immediate source the girl is made his daughter ; in Saxo
they have no connection. Hamlet's harangue to his mother is
descended straight from Amleth, and the two may be com-
pared in detail. This speech, as it stands in Saxo's rhetoric,
is evidently his own, and thus constitutes the chief place
where Shakspere, of course unwittingly, bears traces of his
very words. Then follows the embassy to Britain, and the
motive of the doomed man causing the death of his executioner
by altering the names in the warrant. But, agreeably to the
root-idea of Saxo's version, Amleth, before departure, has
laid his plans, and bidden his converted mother net the fatal
hangings, which, with the crooks, are to encompass his ven-
geance. Hamlet has no such plan, nor do we hear of any
such adventures of his in England as those which are detailed
of Amleth, and which form the link with the post-Shaksperean
portion of his tale in Saxo's Fourth Book. Amleth's return,
and the fashion of his vengeance, of course differ ; and the
difference is due not merely to the impossibility of burning a
whole palace upon an Elizabethan stage, but to the radical
difference of the heroes. Amleth has to fulfil his plan with
indiscriminate slaughter, and then to reign. Hamlet only
punishes the criminal, and this by accident, at the last
moment before his own destruction. The sole points in com-
mon are that both the uncle and the mother are killed. After

1 Saxo's "straw" becomes in Belleforest and Shakspere the hangings
behind which the listener lurks.

400 SAXO GRAMMAT1CUS.

this point Amleth enters on a wholly new set of adventures
which Shakspere, though he found them in Belleforest, did
not need.

"Two points in Amleth's soul" are yet to mention. Saxo
makes him not only long-headed and full of equivocations,
but punctilious of verbal truthfulness. He lies, that is, wishes
to deceive, but his words, if he is to be challenged afterwards,
will bear a truthful colour. "Though his words did not
lack truth, th^re was nothing to betoken the truth." He is
also preternaturally observant of small things (pp. 114-5).
These traits are transformed in Hamlet, who is continually
oivino* double answers, not from love of truth, but from love
of mockery, as if to satisfy his delight in fooling others ; and
who has also sudden formidable outbursts of penetration, as
with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But the point for remark
is, that nearly all the differences of motive between Shak-
spere and Saxo depend on their different conceptions of the
prince's character : Amleth being quite sane and quite resolute,
Hamlet neither.

We cannot wonder at Goethe having seen rich artistic possi-
bilities in Saxo.1 Into none of his tales does Saxo put more of
himself ; for colour of incident, as in the burning of the palacr,
for sweep and power of declamation, as in the harangue to
the Danes, he has written nothing to equal the story of
Amleth, unless it be the story of Starkad. It must be
granted that Saxo's blemishes appear also ; he is unwieldy in
his narrative, and he leaves difficulties without explaining them.
His tale cannot ahvays be understood as he gives it. What is
the meaning of Amleth's dark answers on p. 109 ? What is
the sense of the message through the gadfly ? We can
answer some of these questions, but Saxo does not. He
acquiesces in and reports these seeming puerilities without
trying to smooth them down, or seeing that the reader will

1 Uhland, one of the first men who tried to collate Saxo with Norse
authorities, speaks aptly of the kk broad copiousness, romantic ornamen-
tation, and sharp-wittedness" evident in the tale. (Werke, v. 205-i>.)

APPENDIX II. 401

be thrown out. Yet this defect of the artist is a merit of the
reporter. It avouches his fidelity, and we are let into some
of the secrets of his workmanship and of his sources. What
sources he may have had for his story or stories of Amleth,
and some parallels that may be found for these, I now
briefly consider.

II.

§ 1. The tale of Saxo falls into two parts, divided by the
accession of Amleth to power (the former part only, and
not all of that, being used by Shakspere). These parts,
whether or no they were connected originally, are closely
connected in Saxo. Ainleth's relations, both with the King
of Denmark and the King of Britain, are quite continuous ;
and his adventures in Scotland are partly linked to his
past by the storied shield. By this Hermutrude recog-
nises Amleth for the famous hero who revenged his father.
Thus Saxo offers us not two stories, but two chapters in the
same story. This is important for those who would decom-
pose Amleth into two distinct heroes, one belonging to the
Third and one to the Fourth Book. Such theorists have to
admit either that Saxo deliberately invented the above links
between the two, or that he took the legend in some form
later than what they profess to be the original one. We
must note, then, what indications Saxo himself gives of his
sources, and what undoubted parallels can be found. The
following are materials for a judgment.

§ 2. It is clear from one passage that Saxo had tivo versions
before him for at least a single trait. When Amleth (pp. 114-5)
detects a taint in the King of England's liquor, it is found to
come from a well spoilt with sword-rust; but "others relate"
that he " detected some bees that had formerly fed in the
paunch of a dead man". No such reference to another ver-
sion is found elsewhere in the story, nor is there anything in
the passage to tell us whether the sources before Saxo were
oral or written.

D D

402 SAXO GltAMMATICUS.

^ 3. Amleth was in popular tradition a Jutlander. " A
plain in Jutland is to be found, famous for his name and
burial-place" (p. 130). Two places, says Miiller, are still called
Amelhede. If we are to trust Saxo as a reporter at all, this
proves that the tale as he received it concerned a prince
represented as (1) historical, (2) Jutish. That there was
such a prince we have no positive evidence for believing ;
that the legend in this form concerns a Jute, is consistent
with either a Danish or an Icelandic authorship for Saxo's
version of it. To form an opinion on this latter point, we must
consider the bearing of

§ 4. The allusion to Amlofti. The verse put, in the Prose
Edda, into the mouth of the tenth century poet-adventurer,
Smebiorn, runs (C.P.B. ii. do1): "Men say that the nine maidens
of the island-mill [the ocean] are working hard at the host-
devouring skerry-quern [the sea], out beyond the skirts of the
earth ; yea, they have for ages past been grinding at Amlo^i's
meal-bin [the sea]." This is the only extant allusion to
Aml63i by name earlier than Saxo. The inference from it
is, that a myth was current in Iceland, 200 years before Saxo,
concerning a man or giant, Amlo'Si, whose quern the sea was
called ; perhaps an inhabitant of its depths. He, then, is
(1) mythical, (2) Icelandic. We can now pursue comparisons
in Icelandic myth, both ancient and modern, not indeed to
this, but to other points of Saxo's narrative.2

§ 5. Parallels to the earlier part (Bk. in) of Amleth's career
are found in the tale of Helgi and Hroar in Hrolfssaga
Kraka.3 Let us number these. There are (i) the dispossessed
sons of Halfdan, whom (ii) his brother FroSi has murdered.
FroSi (iii) pursues them, and tries by sorcerers to find their

1 " Hvatt kveSa hroera Grotta her-grimmastan skerja lit fyr iarftar skauti
EyhicSrs nio briiSir : )n\er es (lungs) fyr longo litf-meldr (skipa hlitfar)
(baug-sker5ir risfcr barSi bol) AmloSa molo."

2 These are summarised by Dr. F. Detter in Zeitsch. fiir deutschei
Alterthum, vol. xxxvi, No. 1, 1892. It will be seen that I do not go
wholly with his inferences, though I have freely used his material.

3 Fomuddar tf<><jin-, ed. Rafn, 1821), vol. i. ad in it.

Appendix ti. 4(Ki

whereabouts; but is baulked by the astuteness of Yifil, who
keeps them on an isle. They go (iv) to a feast witli Halfdan,
disguised and under false names, one of them (v) behaving
wildly. Their sister Signy recognises them, there is a scene
of confusion, they nail up the doors ; (vi) the king is de-
stroyed, as well as (vii) their mother, who refuses to quit the
hall, and whom we may infer (viii ?) had allied herself with
the usurper.

These resemblances to Amleth's story resolve themselves
mainly into the motive for vengeance and the method of
vengeance. The element of feigned madness is lightly touched
on (" Helgi .... laetr ser alia vega heimskliga," p. 9) ; but
the version of this tale which Saxo himself gives us (Bk. vii,
pp. 260-203), wherein the names of the sons are Harald
and Halfdan, brings out the feigned madness more strongly,
and lays equal stress on the crime and the punishment.1
The Amleth story, however, is so different in its details that
the resemblance of these three elements is somewhat obscured.
We cannot say which, if either, is the parent story, or whether
the stories are collaterals, and variants descended from some
widespread and early version. The latter is more likely ; but
the existence of this version is itself conjectural. The com-
parison only establishes that Saxo's tale of Amleth is parallel
in its three chief elements to an Icelandic saga, which
concerns a historical king, Hrolf Kraki, included by Saxo in
his Danish list (Bk. II, p. G9), but represented by him as living
at a period long before Amleth.

1 It has been pointed out (Introd., § 7) that the story of the conceal-
ment of the two boys under hounds' guise is the Lancelot-Lionel story,
where the Dame du lac hides two kingly children from foes by actually
turning them for the time into hounds. Whether this Celtic element
was borrowed and added in Saxo's authority to the story (as, for
instance, a Tristram motif was added to Grettis Saga) is uncertain but the
theory is probable. In this case the original Halfdan and Harald story
may have been closer still to Saxo's Amlethus. The incident of two lads
avenging in their youth a murderer of their father occurs in the Icelandic
family Sagas. — F. Y. P.

DL> 2

404 SAXO GRAMMA TICUS.

§ 6. But Amleth attracted writers in Norse after Saxo.
Two sagas, as yet unedited, remain in MS. at Copenhagen.
The first, AmloSasaga Hardvendilssona, is a free manipulation
of Saxo's, and is probably1 made from Vedel's Danish transla-
tion of 1575. In the second, called Ambales-saga, or AmloSa-
saga, and written after the Reformation, the original tale is
half-effaced by romantic elements. Ambales, son of Salman,
King of Cimbria, was called Aml63i, "because he lay con-
tinually in the fire-hall opposite the ash-heap". He (i) escapes
from an invading usurper by (ii) sham madness, while his
elder brother, who is more simple, is killed. The usurper
(iii) marries perforce Ambales' mother, Amba. Ambales does
nothing but " fashion (iv) very small spits from hard wood,
and when they seemed ready he left them in a corner near
the fire-house". He also gives strange answers, and when
asked where he felt the death of his father worst, he said,
" Sorest behind". There is (v) an eavesdropper, whom, hidden
under the queen's bed, Ambales kills. He is then sent to
Tamerlane, but (vi) on the way changes the names in the
death-warrant, so that (vii) the messengers are killed. He
(viii) marries Tamerlane's daughter, and goes back for
vengeance. In (ix) fool's guise he creeps into the hall, (x)
nails down the clothes of the company with his pegs, and
(xi) sets fire to the hall. The rest is fighting and fairy tales.
There is no doubt that this is a form of Saxo's tale ; the
question is, whether it bears traces of being partly drawn
from any source different from his.2

§ 7. Now an interesting and undoubted variant of this last

1 In the view of Dr. Otto Jiriczek, quoted by Detter, op. cit.> p. 18,
from whom I also draw the summary of the Ambales-saga. The MSS.
are respectively AM. 521 d, and AM. 521 a, b, c.

2 There seems no proof of any early element in this story, while it bears
evident marks of being drawn from Saxo. The introduction of names
like Salman (Soliman the Turk), Tamerlane (the Tatar Kaan), Cimbria,
etc., are signs of late " fictitious sagas", made up in a regular phraseology
and in regular saga style, and founded on any scrap of tale — Arthurian,
Carolingian, Classical, Biblical — which fell in the compiler's way. —
F. Y. P.

APPENDIX II. 405

tale has been found in modern Icelandic folk-lore.1 The tale

of Brjam relates how an Ahab-like king coveted, not the

vineyard, but the cow of a poor man. His servants kill the

man and the two elder sons. "They asked the children where

they felt the pain sorest. All clapped their breasts save

Brjam, who [see § 6] clapped his hinderlands and grinned."

The others are killed, but he is (i) spared as witless, and his

mother makes him a sorcerer. He (ii) fosters revenge, and in

the end goes (iii) to a feast of the king, having previously got

and wrought at (iv) some wooden pegs, like Amleth's crooks.

Asked their use, he (v) says, " to avenge daddy" (hefna papa),

but is derided. Pointing these with steel, he (vi) fastens the

feasters to the benches while they drink. They grow angry

and slay one another. Brjam then marries the princess, and

(vii) becomes king.

It will be seen that the stories of § 6 and § 7 have points in
common which are not in Saxo, especially the killing of the
elder brother and sparing of the younger, who feigns madness,
together with the answer of the latter. As Dr. Detter points
out, the two when put together supply many of the traits of
Amleth, such as his answer that he will avenge his father. I
do not, however, follow his conclusion that we have here a com-
position independent of Saxo, which has even preserved some
motives of the Brutus-story lacking in Saxo.2 The Brutus
story, of which it is time now to speak, may have been known
to and have influenced the makers of this version, which yet
may have rested mainly upon Saxo. (Before passing on it is
worth noting that Saxo's tale was trolled far and wide in
popular song at the end of the fifteenth century. The
Danish Rime- Chronicle, ascribed to Niels of Soro, and pub-
lished in 1495, follows Saxo only, and casts every essential
incident into its running doggerel. It brings in nothing new.)
§ 8. But other elements in Saxo's tale take us back to
Roman story. When Amleth has caused the King of England
to hang Feng's messengers, he makes out their death to be a

1 Arnason, Id. Pj66sogur ok JEjintyri, Leipz., 1864, ii. 205.

2 Zeitschr., I. c, p. 22.

40 G SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

grievance, exacts gold for were-gikl, and pours it molten into
hollow staves (p. 11. 5). Asked on his return where the men
are, he points to the staves, and says, " There are both". This
he does partly to increase his repute for madness, partly on his
principle of telling the literal truth.

This, together with the feigned madness, constitutes so
striking a likeness between the tales of Amleth and Brutus,
as to prove their connection. Belleforest and the old com-
mentators were fond of making a comparison ; we see a
relationship. The Roman tale is found in Livy, Valerius
Maximus, besides Dionysius of Halicarnassus,1 each of whom
gives his own colouring and his own turn to it. Valerius
we know that Saxo read ; and there are also traits which
occur in Saxo and Livy, but not in Valerius. The words of
these two latter historians then may be quoted.

Livy (i. 56) says of Tarquin : " Duos filios per ignotas ea
tempestate terras, ignotiora maria, in Graeciam misit. comes
additua iis L. Iunius Brutus, Tarquinia sorore regis natus,
iuvenis longe alius ingenio quam cuius simulationem induerat.
is cum primores civitatis, in quibus fratrem suum ab avunculo
interfectum audisset, neque in animo suo quicquam regi
timendum neque in fortuna concupiscendum relinquere statuit,
contemp tuque tutus esset, ubi in iure parum praesidii esset.
ergo ex industria factus ad imitationem stultitiae cum se
suaque praedae regi sineret, Bruti quoque haud abnuit cogno-
men, ut sub eius obtentu cognominis liberator ille populi
Romani animus latens opperiretur tempora sua. is turn ab
Tarquiniis ductus Delphos, ' ludibrium verius quam comes,
aureum baculum inclusum corneo cavato ad id baculo tulisse
donum Apollini dicitur, per ambages effigiem ingenii sui."

They leave Delphi, and the well-known tale follows of
Brutus kissing his mother earth. Brutus does not throw off
the mask till the death of Lucretia, when he suddenly vows
that kings shall cease at Rome, and gives his friends the
suieide's knife; they "wonder at the marvel, whence was

1 Cp. also Ovid, Fasti, ii. 717: "Brutus erat stulti sapiens imitator."

APPENDIX II. 407

this strange wit in the breast of Brutus". The sequel
shows him dethroning the tyrant, and elected one of the first
consuls.

Such is the story of Livy. The points to note are these :
(i) The uncle, a usurper, who has already killed a son of the
old king, now slays one of his own nephews who is spirited
and unwary, and (ii) persecutes the other, who (iii) escapes
by seeming doltish. This nephew then (iv) goes on an errand
with two companions, who think him foolish ; he (v) puts
gold in his sticks by kissing the earth ; he (vi) outwits his
companions, he awakens up on emergency ; he (vii) matures
revenge and works it ; he (viii) succeeds to power. These
likenesses to Saxo's tale are clear ; but Saxo, there is no
doubt, knew the story best from his favourite, Valerius
Maximus. His page is duller than Livy's, and his version
runs as follows (the phrase in italics is taken by Saxo in his
story of Amleth, as Stephanius long ago noticed) : —

" Quo in genere acuminis [vafritiae] in primis Iunius
Brutus referendus est. nam cum a rege Tarquinio, avunculo
suo, omnem nobilitatis indolem excerpi, interque ceteros etiam
fratrem suum, quod vegetioris ingenii esset, interfectum ani-
madverteret, obtunsi se cordis esse simulavit eaque fallacia
maximas suas virtutes texit. profectus etiam Delphos cum
Tarquinii filiis, quos is ad Apollinem Pythium muneribus et
sacrifices honorandum miserat, aurum deo nomine doni clam
cavato baculo inclusum tulit, quia timebat ne sibi caeleste
numen aperta liberalitate venerari tutum non esset." (Memo-
rabilia, vii. 2.)

Valerius, therefore, adds nothing to Livy, but, on the
contrary, reduces and dries up his story. Dionysius of
Halicarnassus' account of the matter (iv. 68, 77) may be
shortened. Here, Brutus's father and brother have been
murdered by Tarquin. " Brutus being young and wholly
without support, undertook the wisest possible project: he
libelled himself with an assumption of folly ; and he from
that time forth continually kept up the pretence of being
stupid, whence he received this surname [Bpuvros, which

408 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

Dionysius elsewhere explains as equal to rjkidiosf], and this
saved him from suffering any harm at the hands of the tyrant,
while many good men perished." Tarquin then takes away
his goods, and keeps him with his children to be their butt.
They visit Delphi, and, after hearing the oracle, " they pre-
sented offerings to the god, and mocked much at Brutus
because he offered to Apollo a wooden stick ; but he had
bored it through like a flute, and put in it a rod of gold,
without any man knowing." The usual sequel is repeated.
Later, on being made consul, he harangues the Romans in a
way reminding us of Amleth, explaining how he had assumed
the mien of a man distracted, and had seemed a fool. This
feature, absent in Livy and Valerius, is the only one that
raises a possibility (quite remote) of Dionysius having reached
Saxo through some epitome or Latinised citations.

§ 9. These points of likeness are apparent. Another is the
name of Amleth, AmloSi. Like Brutus, it means dull or
foolish. Vigfusson (I eel. Diet. s. v.) conjecturally connects it
with an Anglo-Saxon word homola, which occurs once in the
laws of Alfred, and which he translates " fool" ; but Bosworth
and Toller give up the meaning of homola. Vigfusson gives as
a secondary modern meaning, " an imbecile, weak person, one of
weak bodily frame, unable to do work, not up to the mark.
' You are a great Amlo^i, that is, a weak fellow, poor fool.' '
Compounds carry out this idea, amloftct-shapr, for instance,
meaning imbecility. Aasen (Norsk Ordbog, 1877) gives amlod
in a modern Norwegian dialect as a pestering fool, amlode to
pester foolishly.

The reference in Sna)biorn's verse (§ 4) to an Oceanic
AmldSi clearly shows that the word as a proper name is 200
years older than Saxo. Nor is there anything in that verse
to show that this being was stupid. The name, therefore,
may be guessed to have gained its connotation of "stupid"
(and thence to have entered the language) from the story
Saxo knew and repeated. The prince was not called Amleth
because he feigned stupidity ; but, because Amleth did so, his
name came to mean " stupid". The view, therefore, that the

APPENDIX II. 409

name of Amleth is a deliberate translation of the word Brutus
into Norse, is unnecessary.

§ 10. But is the story, as Dr. Detter holds, an immigrant
version of the Brutus-story, "transformed and taken up as
the Hamlet-saga into Norse literature" ? " We find it", he
says, " in the Skald Sna3biorn, in the verse Edda, and in the
saga of Hrolf Kraki. In the twelfth century Saxo Grammaticus
works it up. The saga wanders to the extreme north of
Europe, where Ave find it as Ambales-saga, and where it has
survived till to-day in the folk-tale of Brjam." On this viewT,
the skeleton at least of the story is directly taken from the
Latin classics, while the Norse elements are so many accretions.
Certainly the likenesses between the Brutus tale and the
sundry forms of the Amleth tale are remarkable ; and to do
this theory justice they may be recapitulated. They are :
(i) the usurping uncle ; (ii) the persecuted nephew ; (iii) his
loss of his elder brother, and own escape ; (iv) his feigned
madness, which takes in everybody ; (v) his going on a
journey ; (vi) his maturing of revenge ; (vii) his putting gold
in the sticks ; (viii) his punishing his foes ; and (ix) his coming
to power.

But we must also bear in mind the many features in Saxo
alone which have no analogue at all in any shape of the Latin
story. They are (i) the part played by the prince's mother ;
(ii) the plans against him ; (iii) all his devices, besides the
sticks, to baulk them ; (iv) the part played by the prototypes
of Ophelia and Polonius ; (v) the whole fashion of revenge, and
(vi) the entire chapter of Amleth's adventures in England.

With the element represented in the classics, therefore, an
equally large element, presumably Norse, is found in combina-
tion. The question is, how the apparently classic element came
in ? Did Saxo find it there, or did he put it there ? A strong
presumption that he put in some of it, is found in the episode
of the sticks filled with gold. This was in Valerius, whom he
habitually read. Also, given a story to his hand with any re-
semblance to that of Brutus, he would be strongly tempted to
improve the resemblance, and probably did so. But, in that

410 SAXO GKAMMATICUS.

case, how much he added from other sources or his own
fancy, it is impossible to guess. Even that unknown amount
of resemblance to the Brutus story which Saxo found and
did not make, may be due to many causes. There is no
need to assume an infiltration of the classic saga. The motive
may have been part of the general European fund, of which
the Latin and Norse versions may be separate offshoots. We
cannot yet tell. Likewise, it is impossible to determine how
far Saxo found the Danish1 element (§ 3) and the Icelandic
elements (§ 4, sq.) already united, and how far (if at all) he
united them himself. We can only say that a tradition, con-
nected first with a mythical Norse name, and with Icelandic
sagas early and late, is by Saxo attached to a prince of Jutland,
and bears traces of classical influence ; and further (§ 2), that
Saxo had different versions before him which he sifted. It
may be objected this is merely to restate the problem we
began with ; and so it is. But, with the facts before us, we
can at least shun licence of hypothesis.2 And we really know
too little — though this also has been a ground teeming with
hypotheses — of the degree to which Saxo habitually altered
his materials, to justify us in decomposing his saga further.8

1 There is no doubt that (as Dr. Olrik points out, Kild. til Sakses Old
Historie, p. 132; Kong. Nord. Oldsk., 1892) that the forms Amlethus
(Jutish) and Hermintruda (German) point to Danish origin, as do the local
associations, the anonymity of many of the personages (un-Icelandic), and
other traits of the story, the absence of verse for instance. — F. Y. P.

2 Such as has been rife on this question. Dr. Adolf Zinzow, in Die
Hamletsage an nnd mit vencaudten Sagen erliiutert, Halle, 1877, reduces
all the personages to nature-myths, Feng being the destructive winter-
god, and the like. Dr. R. G. Latham, in two Dissertations on the
Hamlet of Saxo Grammaticus and of Shakespeare, London, 1872, a very
confused work, denies (what the verses in the prose Edda prove) that
there was ever an Amlethus in Norse legend, asserting, in spite of
their strait connection, that the Amleths of Bks. in and iv are different
persons ; he identifies the first with a totally different character, the mute
Uffo, and the second with Huglek-Chochelaicus.

3 There is a type of old story occurring in Great Britain and Ireland,
which relates how a wicked king usurps a kingdom. The hero, pretending
to be a fool, executes vengeance by letting in the water of the sea upon

APPENDIX II. 411

the king and his palace and realm, which is sunk under the waves, only
appearing now and then at low tides or by fragments dragged up by
fishermen's anchors. There is a woman of the Ophelia type, apparently,
in some versions of the story (see Four Ancient Books of Wales, i. 302, 310 ;
ii. 59, 353). Now, there are several marked indications of sea-inflnence in
this Amlethus story ; his remarks touching the rudder smack of the sea.
Smebiorn speaks of his mill and the sand his meal. He kills his foes by
a net which trammels them. There is the feigned madness, the usurper,
the woman, common elements in both. Is it not possible that the original
Amlethus took vengeance by water, not by fire ? Is not this folk-tale,
the Sea-Hamlet, one of the ground-elements in Saxo's story ? The
"riddles" (which might originally have been in verse, as we thought in
C. P. B.) must be part of the original story ; they are not Saxo's inven-
tions, in our judgment.

That there was an eleventh-century Amlo'Si's Saga is not an hypothesis
that has much evidence to support it. But it is not unlikely that a brief
chapter on Amlo'Si found an episode in the early part of Scioldunga ;
there may even have been a scrap or two of verse of an old Amlo'Si's lay
in this chapter. But the main part of Saxo's relation rests on local
tradition (whether plain speech or verse we do not know, but more
probably plain speech), and on the Brutus story, which we know Saxo
had before him in one classic author at least.

The connection between Hamlet and the rest of Teutonic mythology
rests with Orwendil, whose son he is. Dr. Rydberg's Hamlet- Swipdag
(Tent. Myth. 571-2) is a mere guess, and his evidence from Jordanis
reposes, in the case of Orwendil, on a false reading — Arwantala
(Arpantala) for Respamare or Reswamare. That the original AmloSi
tale, whatever it was, was connected with Orwendil and Geirwendil
seems hardly doubtful. That Orwendil was known in England the Codex
Exoniensis bears witness in the verses —

" Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast
Ofer middangeard monnum sended."

Grimm pointed this out long ago (Teut. Myth., tr. Stally brass, i. 375-6).
So far, no trace of the Hamlet story associated with Hamlet's name has
been recognised in England. — F. Y. P.

Note. — Since the above was in type, Professor Rhys has kindly sent
us a summary of an unpublished Irish tale copied by him from Bodley MS.
Laud 010 (foil. 96-7), of the same general kind as the story given in
§ 5, though no kinship can be supposed. There is (i) a rightful heir (ii)
reared by his foster-father, and (iii) in the end dispossessing an usurper.

412 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

The heir (iv) gives a wise answer. The story in its other features touches
rather the great class that deals with princes reared among beasts, like
William of Palerne. We are glad to print Professor Rhys' summary
here, as being of interest in a book on folk-lore : —

"The battle of Magh Mucruimhe was fought between Art, King of
Ireland, and Mac Con. The latter had been banished, and returned with
allies from Britain. They invaded Connaught, and Magh Mucruimhe is
supposed by O'Curry (MS. Materials, p. 43) to be between Athenree and
Gal way, and he guesses the date to have been 195 a.d. Irish history
speaks of it as a great battle, and, as usual in Irish story, the great
leaders slept with young women of distinction the night before going to
the battle, that they might leave issue. Several of the latter figure in
Irish story. This was the case with Art, the King of Ireland ; he fell in
the battle, leaving Achtan, the maid with whom he slept, with child.
In due time the child was born : it was a boy, and was named Cormac
— the celebrated Cormac Mac Airt he became. After the battle
Mac Con usurped the kingly power, and ruled at Tara for thirty years,
when he was superseded by Cormac Mac Airt. I ought to have said that
Mac Con was related to Art : he appears to have been the son of his
sister.

' ' Now as to Cormac's story. When he was born, five spells were sung
over him, to defend him against (1) wounds, (2) drowning, (3) fire,
(4) brevity of life (?), (5) wolves. [In fact, he died an old man, choked by
a salmon-bone, at the wish of a Druid who was angry with him for
becoming Christian.] When he was a young child, a she-wolf carried
Cormac away from his mother's side, and the beast suckled him, till a
certain man found him running with the cubs of the she-wolf. He
caught him and fed him for a year, when his mother Achtan heard of it,
and came for the child. The man gave her the child, and told her the
story of his finding it. He sent her away secretly when he discovered
that the child was son of Art, as he felt that he was risking his own life if
this reached the ears of Mac Con, the King of Tara.

"Achtan and her child went to the North of Ireland to the foster-
father of Art, and on her way she was attacked by a pack of wolves,
which were, however, diverted by a herd of deer attracting their atten-
tion. At the house of Art's foster-father the mother and child remained,
and Cormac was brought up there till he was thirty years of age. Then
he was equipped with the sword, the gold ring, and the raiment of his
father, and sent alone to Tara. At the gates of Tara Cormac found a man
disputing with a woman, who was weeping bitterly, whereupon Cormac
made for the man, and drew his sword. The man proved to be Nechtan,
the King's steward, and in spite of his remonstrance he had to surrender.
Whereupon Cormac bound him to grant him a boon : the boon proved to

APPENDIX II.

413

be that he was to say nothing at the Court of Tara about him (Cormac).
This granted, Cormac inquired why the woman was weeping, and the
steward replied that she wept because that she did not like a judgment
pronounced by the King, namely, that she was to forfeit her sheep for the
damage they had done by grazing on the Queen's lawn. It were more
just, said Cormac, that the one fleecing [the wool of the sheep] should be
taken as indemnity for the other [the grazing the sheep had done]. The
steward reported this to the King, who exclaimed that the man who said
that was to be his successor on the throne of Tara, adding, ' If there be
a man of the race of Art in Erinn, it is that man.' Mac Con thereupon
quitted Tara, and left it and the kingdom in the hands of Cormac."

APPENDIX III.

GENEALOGY OF SAXO. Books I. II.

1. HUMBLUS I.

Grytha.=j=2. Dan I.

Ansrul.

3. Humblus II.

4. LOTHER.

Aluilda, d. R. Saxonu.=p5. Scioldus.

Swipdag, R. Sueonum.

Haquinus, R. Signe,dtr. Sum-=j= 6. GRAM.=pGro, dtr. Siytrwjus, G\xm\-=^Asmund.
Nitherorom. blus, R.

Fiunoru.

R. Sueonum.

da.

Rag- =j=7. Hadin-= Harth- Guthormus. Hericus. Uffo. /landing ^ThoYildn.

nilda.

gus. grepa, f.
Wagn-
head.

Sueonum,

Dtr.

I 1 2 3 j | |

Dtr. of Hand- = 8. Frotho Guth- = Ulvil- = Uffo. = Scot- Sv\iui-=^liegnerus, Thoral-

uanus, R.
Hellespont^

orm. da.

R. dus.

Sueonum.

9. Haldanus I. 9. Roe I. 9. Scatus.

tus. huita.

Jlothbroddus, R. Sueonum.

10. Roe II. 10. HELUE.=y=Thora.

JJrsa.=j=Atislas, R. Nanna, f. Gewar. = 12. Hotherus.

Sueonum.

11. Roluo krage. Sculda = Hiartuaru3, Ruta. = Biarco. 13. Roricus,

Pref. Suecie. Slyngebond.

Gerwendillus, prefectus Iutie.

| 2 | 1

Fenjjo. = Horwendillus.=f=Gerutha.

2 | 1

14. Viglecus. = Hermuntruda. =Amletbus. = Dtr. of K. of
I Britain.

Frowinp, E. of Sleswick. 15. Vermundus.

E. Ket. E. Wig. Dtr.- 1G. Uffo [Olauus Mansuetus].

17. Dan II [tumidus].

APPENDIX III.

415

GENEALOGY OF SAXO. Books III. IV. V. VI. VII.

18. HUGLECUS.

19. Frotho II Vegetus.

Hun, K. of Huns.

20. Dan III.

21. Fridleuus I celer. Gothams,

K. Norway.

Ragnar of

Norway.

Roller, = Hanun- =
s. of da.

Ragnar of
Norway.

Frogertha, dtr. of;

Asmund, K.

Norw.

Hytbin, K. of
Thelemark.

22. Frotho III.=f=Alvilda. Gotbwar, K.^Gunwara. = Eric elo-

Norway. quern, K.

of Swedes.

23. Fridleuus — Iuritba. = Ane. Alf. Eyfora.=j=Arn- Alf-

II.

dtr. of Grubb.

grim. bild.

24. Frotho IV largus. Olaf Sons of / Arngantyr, Rane.

Litilltite. Arn- J Hiartwar, Hiortwar.
grim — | Had dings twain.
Tyrfing Tand.
Hiarrande Brodd.
Biarbi Brond.

Dtv. = Half- Dtr.=p25. Ingellus.

dan, of

K. of Swert

Swedes. ing.

Helga.=pHelge of Norway. Asa.

I I I

Frode. Fridlaf. Ingeld.

Siward, K. Swedes. 26. Olauus. o. s. p. o. s. p. o.s.p.

Carolus, Pra3f.
Gotbie.

Ulfilda. = 27. Frotho V.

Eric, K.

of
Sweden.

Haraldus.=j=Sygne.

Hather.

Haraldus. 28. Haldanus II.=f=Thorbild.

Asmund.

41 G SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

GENEALOGY OF SAXO. Books VII. VIII.
29. Yngwe. K. of Goths.

3i'. Siwald I. Siffrid.

31. Sigar. Sigrid. = Ottar Ebbe's son.

32. Siwald II. Alfgeir. Signe. = Hagbard. s. of Hamund.

Siward, K. of Goths. Regnald, K. of Norway.

I i I 2 1

Alf.-f=Alfhild. Osten. Wermund. 33. BoRGAR=pDrott,=f=Gunnar the cruel, of

of Scania. | Sweden.

i i ."' ' i

Guritha.=f=Halfdan. ~Dtv.=j=Inrjild, s. of Dtr.=f=Siward of Hildiger

34. Harald I Hildetand.

Alver, K. of

Sweden, b.

of Olaf and

Ing.

Norway. the cruel.

Athysl, K. of Scania. 35. Ring. Esa, dtr. of Olaf, K. of Wermia.=p-]6. Ole.

Homod. = Dtr. Esa.=p37. Omund.

38. Siward I. Budle. Dtr. = Golkar, K. of Swedes. Dtr.

I I I

39. Ermanaric — sister of the Hellespontines. Dtr. Dtr.

i i

, ' i — i — !

40. Broder. S. S. S.

41. Siwald III.

-12. Sni'o. = Dtr. of K. of Goths.

43. Biorn.

44. Harald II.

45. Gorm I. Gaut, K. of Norway.

i i

46. Gotric-Godfred. =Dtr.

Siward Ring. =f Dtr. 47. Olauus. Dtr. 48. Hemming.

I
Ring, K. of Jutland.

APPENDIX III.

417

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E E

APPENDIX IV.

LAST NEWS OF STARCAD.

The Tale of Thorstan shiver (Flatey-book, i. 416). — It
is told that the summer after1 King Olaf [Tryggwesson]
went to guest quarters east over the Wick and other places
about. He took quarters at the homestead that is called Rain.
He had a good many men with him. There was a man then
with the king whose name was Thorstan, the son of Thorkell,
the son of Asgar gedicoll, the son of Audun shackle, an
Icelander, and he had come to the king the winter before.

In the evening, as men sat over the drink-tables, King Olaf
said that no man of his men was to go alone into the hall
by night : and that anyone who wished to go should call
his bedfellow with him ; or else, he said, he would not
permit it. Men now drank well the evening through, and
when the drink-table was off men went to bed. And as
the night wore on, Thorstan the Icelander woke, and was
minded to get out of his berth ; but he that lay beside
him was sleeping so soundly that Thorstan would not at
all wake him. He stood up and slipped his shoes on his
feet and took a thick rug over him and walked to the
draught-house. It was a big house, and set so that eleven
men could sit on either side. He sat down on the nearest
seat. And when he had sat there a little while he saw a puck
come up out of the inmost seat and sit down there. Then
said Thorstan, " Who is come there ?" The fiend answereth,
"Here is come Thorkell the thin that fell at Bra-field2

1 It was the summer after Earl Rognwald had sent an embassy to the
king.

2 MS. reads "a hne", which Yigfusson emends "a" Brdvelli" with
success.

APPENDIX IV. 419

with King Harold War-tooth." " Whence comest thou now ?"
quoth Thorstan. He said he was come fresh from hell.
" What canst tell me about it ?" asked Thorstan. He an-
swereth, " What wilt thou know about ?" " Who beareth his
pain best in Hell ?" " None better," quoth the puck, " than
Sigurd Fafnesbane." " What pain hath he ?" " He kindleth
the burning oven," saith the ghost. " That seemeth not to
me so great a pain," saith Thorstan. " That is not so," quoth
the puck, " for he himself is the kindling." " Then it is great,"
quoth Thorstan. " But who beareth his pain the worst ?"
The ghost answereth, " Starcad the old beareth it worst, for he
will be whooping so that it is greater punishment to us fiends
than well-nigh all else, inasmuch as we can get no rest for his
whooping." " What punishment hath he, then ?" quoth
Thorstan, " that he beareth so ill, so stout a man as he hath
been called ?" " He hath his ankles afire." " That doth not
seem to me so much," said Thorstan, " for such a champion as
he hath been." " It is not accounted so little," quoth the
ghost, " for only the soles of his feet stand up out of the
fire." " That is a great punishment," quoth Thorstan, " and do
thou whoop a whoop like him ?" " So it shall be," quoth the
puck. Then he cast asunder the chaps on him and set up a
great howl. But Thorstan pulled the skirt of the rug over
his head. He was right ill at ease with that whoop, and he
spake, " Doth he whoop his biggest whoop so ?" " Far from
it," quoth the ghost, " for that is the whoop of a paltry little
devil like me." " Whoop a little like Starcad," quoth Thorstan.
" That may well be," quoth the puck. Then he betook him
to whooping a second time, and so frightfully that it was a
wonder to Thorstan how so small a fiend could make such
a mighty howl. Thorstan did as before ; he wrapped the rug-
about his head and covered him so, nevertheless a swoon came
over him so that he lost his senses. Then the puck asked,
" Why art thou silent ?" Thorstan answered, " I was silent
because I was wondering what a mighty power of noise there
is in thee, so small a puck as me thinks thou art. And is that
the biggest whoop of Starcad ?" " It is no nearer it," saith he ;

E E 2

420 SAXO GRAMMATICUS.

" it is rather the least of his whoops." " Put it off no more,"
quoth Thorstan, " and let me hear his biggest whoop." The
puck agreed thereto. Thorstan made him ready against it,
and drew the ru£ together, and so turned it over his head and
held it outside with his two hands. The ghost had moved
up toward Thorstan about three seats with each whoop, and
there were now only three seats between them. Then the
puck puffed out his chaps fearfully, and rolled his eyes, and
began to howl so loud that Thorstan thought it passed all
measure.

And at that nick a bell rang in the place, and Thorstan fell
forward senseless down on to the floor. But the puck, when
he heard the noise of the bell, was so moved that he sank
down through the floor, and one might long hear the booming
of 1dm down in the earth. Thorstan soon came to himself, and
stood up and walked to his berth and lay down.

And in the morning men got up, the king went to church
and heard the hours. After that they walked to table. The
king was not very blithe. He took up his speech, " Did any
man go alone to the draught-house last night ?" Thorstan
then stood up and bowed down before the king, and said that he
had broken his command. The king answereth, " It hath not
so greatly offended me : but thou showest what is told of you
Icelanders, that ye are very self-willed. But didst see any-
thing ?" Thorstan told him then the whole story as it had
happened. The king asked, " What didst think when he
whooped ?" " I will tell thee, Lord, I thought I could tell from
thy having warned all men not to go thither alone, when the
bogey came up, that we should not part without scathe. But I
thought that thou wouldst waken, Lord, when he whooped, and
I thought if thou should learn to know of it, I should then be
holpen." " It was so," said the king, " that I woke with it, and
thereby I knew what was going on, wherefor I had the bell
runo\ for I knew that thou couldst not otherwise endure. But
wast not afraid when the puck began to whoop ?" Thorstan
answered, " I know not what it is to be afraid." " Was never
fear in thy breast ?" said the king. " Never," said Thorstan,

APPENDIX IV. 421

" though with that last whoop a shiver well-nigh shot into
my breast." Answereth the king, " Now thy name shall be
eked, and thou called Thorstan Shiver henceforward. And
here is a sword that I will give thee as a name-fastening."
Thorstan thanked him. It is told that Thorstan became a
court-man of King Olaf's, and was with him afterwards, and
fell with other of the king's champions on the Long Serpent.

"AND THE END WAS EVER TO DO WELL."

INDICES.

I.— PERSONS AND PLACES.

Absalon, bishop, x, xii, xv, xcviii, i, 2,

285, 397
Achtan, 412

yElnoth, English monk, ix
Africanus (Scipio), 213
Agapete, Agapetus, 385
Agdar Ness [modern Norw. Agdenaes],

Agdarnes, 222
Agg> Agi ( ? Aki), Aggi, 309, 312
Agg, Aggo, guardian of Erode III, 148
Agg, Aggo, son of Gambaruk, 342
Agnar, Aqnerus, son of Ingell, xlvi, 68-9,

78
Agnar, Agnerus, son of Ragnar, 366
Aland, Halica provincial, 311
Alf, K. of Hethmark, 199
Alf, son of Sigar, xciii, c, cxxi, 274-9,

287
Alf, son of Agg, 309
Alf Goter, 310
Alf, Aluo, son of Erik, 203
Alf the Ear-Wanderer, 313
Alf the Lofty, 313

Alfhild, Aluilda, Saxon princess, 17
Alfhild, Aluilda, d. of Gotar, 181-4
Alfhild, Alui'da, d. of Siward the Goth,

liv, c, 274-7
Alfred, xlix, li, lxxxiv, xc
Alger, -us, 274, 277, 279
Alkil, Alkillus, 339
Allemannians, Alemanni, 18; Allemannia,

18
Alrik, Alricus, K. of Swedes, 199
Alver, Aluerus, son of Alrek, 313
Alver, Aluerus, K. of Sweden, 290, 292,

298
Ambales, 404
Ambar, 309
Amleth, -us, Icel. AwldSi, D. Amlode,

Hamlet, prince of Jutland, xlvii, xcv,

106-30, 398-413 ; speech to his mother,

tii-2 ; to the Danes, 118-21
Ammianus, Marcellinus, xcvii
Amund, -us, K. of Norway, 218-21
Ana-fial, rock in Russia, 229
Andrew, Andreas, D. Anders Suneson,

Archbishop of Lund, patron of Saxo,

xvi, 2
Ane, Ano, the Archer, xlvii, 221-3
Anganty, Angantir, son of Arngrim, 205

Anganty, Angaterus or Anganturus,

Zealander, 238, 241
Angers-Eragment, xix-xxi, 17 20
Angles, Anglica gens, in S. Jutland, 15
Angli ( = English), 208. See English
Angrbode, cxxi
Angul, brother of Dan, 15
Anlaf, xlix, lii, cxiv
Anses, exxii

Ansgarius, saint, lxxxii, cxiv, 384
Anund, -us, rover, 266
Aquitania, 301
Arabia, xxx
Are, xciii
Ari the One-Eyed, Ary cassus famine,

310
Arinbiorn, Norwegian robber, 213
Arkon, town in Rugen, 392
Arngrim, -us, Swedish champion, xlvii,

xciv, 203-4
Arnold the Icelander, Arnoldus Tylensis,

xv, xcviii
Arthor, or Arnthor, Arthorius, prince of

Sundmor and Nordmor, 196
Arwakki, Anvacki, Swede, 313
Arwar-odd, Aruaroddus ( = Arrow-Odd),

rover, xlvii, liv, 204, 205
Asa, sister of Ingild, 238
Ascensius, Jodocus Badius, printer of ed.

pr. of Saxo, xvii-xviii
Aschaneus, priest, xix
Asgard, xci
Asker, bishop, xi
Asniund, -us, son of Alf, 199-201 ; his

song, 201
Asniund, -us, son of Halfdan, 270
Asmund, -us, son of Swipdag, his song,

Ixvi, 32-33
Asmund, -us, K. of Wikars, 297
Aswid, Asuitus, A suit, son of Biorn, lxvi,

lxvii, 199-201
Atalanta, lii, xciv
Athisl, -us, D. Adils (Eadgils), K. of

Swedes, xxxvii, 131-8, 140
Athisl, Atislus, Athisl us (Eadgils), son of

Hothbrodd, 64-7, 69, 83, 90
Attal, champion, 17
Attila, lxxxi

Atyl, -us (Eadgils), Skanian, 321
Axelsted, Axelstada — Alsted in Zealand?

287

INDEX.

423

Balder, -us, son of Odin, xlvi, lxi, lxiv,
lxvii, cxxii, 84-93

Haider's haven or lee, 89

Bannoekburn, li

Bari, 310

Barri, 310

Barth, Caspar, xviii

Beigad, Begat hits, Dane, 310

Belgi, 310

Bemon, 311

Ber (Biorn?), Dero, soldier of Rusla, 323

Her (Biorn ?), Hero, Icelander, 357

Berg, Bethgar, Icelander, 313

Berhtwulf, 772 ;/.

Bersi, from Falu, 312

Bess, -us, servant of Gram, his flyting,
19-21 ; song, 22

Biarbe, Biarbi, son of Arngrim, 264

Biargram. Biargrammus, " mountain-
strong," 265

Biari, 311

Biarke, Biarco, Bearce, champion, xlvi,
68-80 ; his songs, 72, 77-79, 80

Biarki, Byarchi, 312

Bikk, Bicco, prince of Livonians, 335-8

Bild, Bildus, son of Finn, 145-6

Bihvis, Bihuisus, brother of Bolwis, 282

Biorn, K. of Denmark, son of Snio,

.344
Biorn, Biorn, Biorno, Norwegian robber,

213-22
Biorn, from Soghni, 312
Biorn, Biornus, ruler of Sweden, son of

Ragnar Lodbrog, 366, 370, 374, 378,

.38i-3
Biorn, Biorno, ruler of Wik, 199
Birger, archbishop of Lund, xvii
Birwil, Bitwillus, sea-king, 307; "the

Pale," 312
Blacmen, Blacmanni, 275-6
Bleking, Blekingia, 8 ; rock in, 9, 296,

343
Blend (Blaeng?), Icelander, 310
Blihar (Blig?), the Snub-nosed, 312
Bo (Bui?), Bramason, 310
Bocheror, Bbcher-or, in Sweden, 339
Boe, Bous, son of Odin, lxii, lxvi, 99, 100
Bok, Bbkus, the Covetous, 75
Bolwis, Bohvisus, the ill counsellor, 279,

282
Bootes, the constellation, 9
Borgar, Borcarus, friend of Alf Sigarson,

276, 287, 290-1
Borgar, Borrhy, Burgha (?), from Leire,

310, 316
Borgar, Burgar, 312
Boudicea, xxix

Brage, Brache, tutor of Hadding, 24
Bragi (?), Brahi, Icelander, 313
Brak, Bracus, Brae, husband of Kraka,

178, 180, 184
Brand Crumb (Mica), 310
Brand, Brandcr, son of Arngrim, 204
Brat, Jutlander, 310

Bravalla, warriors at the fight of, xlix-1,

309-19; "Bravic war," 319; trophies

of, 328
Bremen, ix, xiv
Bricrind, lv
Britain, Britannia, 2, 15, 42, 56, 59-60,

1 12-3, 122-7, 147, 205, 301, 368
British Knight, his speech, 59-60
Britons, Britanni, 56-58, 60, 67, 113, 128,

206
Brjam, 405, 409

Brodd, Brodder, son of Arngrim, 204
Brodd, Brodde, son of Finn, 145-6
Broder, -us, K. of Denmark, son of

Jarmerik, 336-8
Broder, -us, servant of Gudmund, 349,

35i
Brun, Bruno, servant of Harald Hyldetan,

?Odin, lx, 307, 315, 317
Brundeluk (Bryndalk ?), Brundelucus,

surname of Gram, 313
Brunhild, xcii

Bryniolf, Bishop of Skalholt, xviii
Buchi (Buk ?), brother of Broder, 349, 351
Budle, Buthlus, Regent of Denmark,

brother of Siward, 330, 334
Bug, Bugo, son of Finn, 145, 146
Byzantium, Bizantium, seat of the gods,

lx, xcii ; 31, 98 and n., 230

C (see K).
Caesar, his "recompense", 212
Calais burgesses, xlvi
" Captain Cook's path," lxxxi
Chaka, li
Christ, 379

Christianity, 359, 380, 384-6
Christian II, xvii
Cicero, xxi, 213-4 n.
Clerk Saunders, lxix
Cormac Mac Airt, 412, 413.
Corvey, men of, Coruegienscs, 396
Cuchullin, xxxvii
Curtana, sword, xlvi

Dag, -us, K. of Ruthenians, 193, 197
Dag (?), Dakar, of Gronland (Grenski),

311
Dal, Sclavonian, 301
Dal (Dag ?) the Fat, 310
Dala, in Norway (Gudbrandsdalen), 317
Daleman, -nus, governor of London, 61
Dan I, K. of Denmark, 15-16
Dan II, K. of Denmark, son of Uffe,

r43
Dan III, K. of Denmark, 145
Danai, 15

Danes, Dani , passim
Danewerk, x
Daxo, Daxon, prince of " Hellespont",

xxvi, xxxiv, xlv, 372, 376, 378
Denmark, Dania, passim
Dia, Dian, K. of " Hellespont", 372
Dia, Dian, son of Dia, 372

424

INDEX.

Dorn, Dorno, K. of Kurlanders, 46
Draupnir, lxvi

Drotta, Drot, Drotn, d. of Rcgnald, 288
Duk, Due, Sclavonian general, 301, 310
Dudo, historian of Normandy, xci, xcviii,

15
Dublin, Duflvium, Duflina, 147, 229,

328> 379. 389
Duna (Diinaburg), 30
Dunbar, lvii
Dunvvat, son of Ragnar Lodbrog, 366,

378

E.
Ebb, Ebbe, Ebbo, rover, 270, 273
Ebb, Ebbo, son of Sibb, 330-1
Ebb, Ebbo, son of Gambaruk, 342
Eckisax, sword, lxxxi
Edwin, xli

Egther, -us, prince of Permland, 203-4
Egther, -us, Finlander, 269
Eider, Eyder, Eidorus, river, 7, 142
Elbe, Albi{y)a, lii, 6, 8, 145, 196, 231,

312. 359 ..
Elfheah, lvii
Ella, see Helle
Elli, 309, 316
Elpenor, lxxiii

Elrik (Alrek ?), Elricus, 313-4
Enar (Icel. Einurr) the Paunched, 313
England, Anglia, 15, 381, 383, 385, 388,

399

English, A ugh, 379, 383, 385, 386

Enni-gnup (= Steep-Brow), regent of
Denmark, 385

Erand, 307

Erasmus, cited, xvi, xxii

Erik, Ericus, Mdl-spaki, the Shrewd-
Spoken, K. of Sweden, son of Ragnar
the champion, xlii, lxxvi-vii, lxxxii,
155-185, 189-192, 194, 197, 198-203,
205, 213; prose-speech to Gotar, 155-6;
flyting with Grep, 162-3 ; flyting with
Frode, 166-171 ; with Gotwar, 171 ;
prose remonstrance with Frode, 175-7 ;
Hyting with Olmar, 190

Erik, Ericus, son of Frode V, 263-5

Erik, Ericus Eabulator, the Story-teller,

313
Erik, Ericus Ventosi Pillei, son of Rag-
nar Lodbrog, Wind-hat, 370, 378, 383
Erik, Ericus, "of royal line," 382-3
Erik, Ericus, bro. of Harald, 382
Erik I, Elricus, the Christian, lxxxii, 383-4
Erling, Erliugar, the Snake, 313
Ermoldus Nigellus, ix
Esa, princess of Werms, 304
Esbern, Hesbcrnus, son of Asker, 285
Esbern, Hesbemus, grandfather of Ubbe,

374
Esbiorn, robber, 213
Esthonia, llestia, Estia, 2?/., 196, 199,

328
Esthonians, E.stones, 224, 314

Etha-scog (= Eid-skogen or Eyda-skog

in Wermland), 302
Ethelred {H)edelradus, K. of English,

386, 388
Europe, Eurqpa, 30, 370
Eyfura, Ofura, d. of Frode III, 203-5
Eyr, Helgi's general, 62
Eystan the Bad, xxiv

Falu (= Fjalir?), in Norway, 313

Fanning, -us, son of Finn, 145

Fantua, "Forcboder," 51

Fates, Parcee, 223, 294

Fauconbcrg, lii

Fauns, Fount, 51

Feng, Fetigo, prince of Jutland, uncle of
Amleth, 104-13, 1 17-123, 125, and
App. II

Ferdia, xxxvii

Fialler, governor of Skaane, exxii, 129

Findar (Finn ?), 312

Finland, Finnia, Phiunia, lxi, 23, 199,
276 ; Finmark, Finnimarchia, Finn-
ma re hi a, 203, 373

Finn, Fyn, 145

Finns, Finlanders, Finni, Phinni, xlv,
xlviii, lxxxix, xciv, 23, 24, 87, 94, 203-4,

373-4

Flebak, 328

Flokk, Eloccus, Russian chief, 227

Folk, Folco, officer of Ket, 132

Folki, son of Elrik, 313

Frakk, EYaccus, son of Bemon, 227

Franks, Franci, 359

Frazer, Mr., xxix

Frey, Fro, god, lx, lxii, lxiii, cxv, exxii,
exxiv, 37, 90, 228 (?), 313 ; Frey's sacri-
fice, Froblod, 38

Frey (?), Frd, K. of Sweden, 363

Freya, lxiii, exxi, exxii

Friesland, Fresia, xlv, 55, 359-360

Friesland( Lesser North Friesland), Fresia
minor, 7 and //.

Fridleifl, Fridleuus, the Swift, K. of
Denmark, 145-8, 190

Fridleif II, Fridleuus, Frithlaf, K. of
Denmark, son of Frode III, li, xci,
212-23

Fridleif, Fridleuus, son of Ingild, 233

Fridleif, Fridleuus, son of Ragnar Lod-
brog, 364-5, 368-70, 378

Frigg, Frigga, Frig, Erigga, goddess, lxi,
31, 80, 343

Frisians, Eresi, Fresica gens, Fresoues,
55-6, 300, 359

Frode I, Frotho, K. of Denmark, son of
Hadding, lii, xcii, 45-9, 54-61

Frode II, FrotAo Vegetus, K. of Denmark,
the Vigorous, Icel. hi/1/1 frakni, 144-5

Frode III, Frotho, K. of Denmark, son
of Fridleif, xxvi, lxvi, 148-53, 155-57,
161, 166-80, 181-200, 202-10 ; flyting
with Erik, 166-71 ; prose speech to
Erik, 174-5; laws, xl-xliv, 187-9, 192-4 ;

INDEX.

425

Frode's Rock, Frothonis petra (" Fro-
deaas, near Tonsberg in Norway,"

Holder), xli, 202
Frode IV, Frotko, K. of Denmark, son

of Fridleif, 223-4, 230-33, 239, 244,

248, 250-8, 328
Frode V, Frotho, K. of Denmark, son of

Ingild, 233, 260-3, 266
Frode VI, Frotho, K. of Denmark, son of

Kanute I, 385
Frogertha, Frogertha, Frogertha, d. of

Amund, 218, 222-3
Frokasund, Frocasund (mod. Frekeyar-

sund), in Norway, 219
Frok, Frbco, 218

Froger, Frogerus, K. of Norway, 144-5
Frosti, Frosty, named Bowl, 313
Frowin, Frowitius, governor of Sleswik,

*3*-2. ^-S

Funen, Fionia, Fyonia, D. Fyen, Germ.

Fiihnen, xxv, 8, 262, 288, 290, 331

( = Pheoiiia ? 32 and //. )
Fyriswald, Firiuallini agri, in Sweden,

76 and //.

G.
Galway Code, xxxvi
Gambaruk, Gambaruc, mother of Agg

and Ebb, 342
Gandal the Old, 311
Ganelon, xxxiv
Gardh, of town Stang, 310. ? = Gardar,

316
Garnum, mod. Gam sham 11, 314
Gaul, Gallia, 2
Gauls, Galli, 379
Gaulardale, Gblerdal, mod. Guldal, in

Norway, xciii, 364
Gaut, Goto, K. of Norway, 357-8
Gautrec, xxxvi
Geigad, Gegathus (not Begathus), warrior

of Starkad, 228-9, 254
Geir, Ger, a Livonian, 311
Geirrod, Geruthus, Garfred, giant, lxiii,

lxv, lxx, 344-50
Gelder, Gelderus, K. of Saxon v, lxvi,

86-7, 89
Geoffrey of Monmouth, xc, cxv, cxxvi vii
Gerbiorn, robber, 213
Germans, Germani, 315, 331
Germany, Germania, lv, 56, 336, 355,

358-9, 369
Gerutha, mother of Amleth, 106, 11 1-2,

116, 118-21
Gerwendil, Getwendillus, father of Feng,

104
Gestiblind, Gestiblindus, K. of Goths,

198
Gewar, Geuartis, K. of Norway, lii, 64

and//., 83-9, 99-100
Gialp, lxxii
Giallar-bru, 346
Gislamark, 313
Glomer, -us, rover, 196

Glumer, -us, servant of Hadding, 34
Gnepie, Gnepia Vetittus, the Old, 309,

316
Gnizli, 310

Gorm I, Gormo, son of Harald, K. of

Denmark, 344, 352, 357
Gorm II, -0, the "Englishman", K. of

Denmark, son of Frode, vi, 385
Gorm III, -o, Guthrum, K. of Denmark,

lvii, lxix-lxxvi, 386, 389-90
Gotar, Gbtarus, Gbtherus, Gbtwarus, K.

of Norway, lxxvi, 155-6, 169-70, 178-84,

189-90
Gotar, Gbtarus, K. of Sweden, 330, 332-4
Gotar, 3 ;/.
Gothland, Gothia, D. Gbtla?id, 8, 12, 19,

22, 260, 339, 374
Goths, Gotthi, Gothi, Gbt{h)enses, dwellers

in Gothland, 74, 78, 80, 198, 267, 270,

274, 314, 317, 339
Gotrik, Gotricus, Gbtricus ; or Godefred,

Godefride, Godefridus ; K. of Denmark,

son of Gorm I, xxxv, xlv, cxiv, cxv,

357- 6o, 361
Gottiand, Gudlandia, Gutlandia, 30

(see //.), 343 ; Gutto?iica classis, 314
Gotwar, Gotwara, Gbtwara, wife of Roll,

148-52; flytingwith Erik, 171-2, 178
Gram (Bryndalk?), 313
Gram, K. of Denmark, son of Skiold,

18-25
Gram, sword, xlvi ;/.
Grandvik, G\r\anduicum mare, 13
Greece, Grecia, 225-6
Greip, lxxii
Grendel, lxv
Grenzli, 311
Grep, Greppus (three brothers so named),

lxxvi, xciii, 150, 154; flyting with Erik,

162-3, I^7. 188
Grette, xxxvi ii

Grettir the Wicked, 312, 317
Grim, Grimar, 311
Grim from Skerry, 313
Grim, Grimmo, champion, 269
Grim, Grimo, son of Gunn, 302 ; his

death-song, 303
Grimhild, lxxxi
Grindir, Grinder, 312
Grip, 21

Grizzle, Patient, xxxi
Groa, Gro, daughter of Sigtryg the Swede,

19 ; flyting with Bess and Gram, 19-21,

24
Groa, Gro, attendant of Alfhild, 277
Grombar the Aged, 313
Gromer, -us, from Wermland, 312
Grbnsund, 375
Grubb, -us, 222
Grundi, 312

Grytha, wife of Dan, 16
Gudfast, Guthfast, 313
Gudmund, Guthmundus, brother of Geir-
rod, lxx, 346-351
Gudrun, Guthruna, witch, 338

426

INDEX.

Grundtvig, N. F. S. , translator of Saxo,

xix
Gummi, from Gislamark, 313
Gunbiorn, robber, 213
Gungne, Woden's spear, xlvii
Gunholm, son of Finn, 145
Gunn, Gun no, "satrap" ot Gewar, 100
Gunn, Gunno, of Tellemark, 302-3
Gunn, ('run no, foster-brother of farmerik,

332-4
Gunnar, -us, Swede, 288-92
Gunnere, xxxiii
Gunthion, -us, Gunntheow, son of Alrik,

Ixvi, 198
Gunwar, Gunuara, Gunwara, the Fair,

sister of Frode III (=Freya?), lxiv,

lxxvi, Ixxvii, 140, 154, 165, 171-3,

17983
Gurid, Guritha, Gyuritha, daughter of

Alf, xxxi, 276, 287, 291, 294, 296
Guthi, Lyuth Guthi (Gofte?), 312
Guthorm, -us, son of Gram, 24-5
Guthorm, -us, son-in-law of Hadding, 42
Guthorm, -us, son of Harald, 384
Guti, son of Alf, 312
Guy of Warwick, liv
Gytha, xx.xii

Hadding, Hadingus, son of Gram, xxiii,
xxxv, xxxvi, li, liii, lxviii-ix, Ixxx, xcv,
cxix, 24-39 '< ms songs, 40, 41-4, 45, 49,

50. 147
Haddings, two, sons of Arngrim, 204
Haethcyn, xxxii
Harle, Haphlius, giant, 24
Hafursfirth, 1
Hagbard, Hagbarthus, son of Hamund,

xxxiv, lxvi and n., ciii, cv, 277-9;

songs to Signe, 280-1 ; death-songs,

283-4
Hagder, Hadd, Hagder, Haddir, the

Hard, 312, 317
Hakon, Haco, tyrant of Denmark, 228,

229, 254, 259
Hakon, Hako, Haco, of Zealand, son of

Wiger, 274, 278, 280-5
Hakon, Hako, Haco, son of Hamund,

285-7 ; his howe, lxvi, 287
Hakon, Haco genam scissus, Cut-cheek,

at Bravalla, 310, 315-6
Hakon, Haco Fastuosus, the Proud, 287
Hakon, Haquinus, K. of the " Nithers",

37
Hakon, Haquinus, a champion, 61
Hakon, Haquinus, a champion of Frik,

264
Half dan I, K. of Denmark, Ha/dan us,

son of Frode I, 61-2
Half dan II, Haldanus, Biargramm, K.

of Denmark, son of Harald, c, cxix, 261,

263-70 ; his song, 267
ffalfdan, HcUdanus, son of Frik the

Floquent and K. of Sweden, 213, 219,

223, 233, 237, 252

Hall, Cain., li

Halland, Hallandia, province, 8, 322,

33°- 1
Hallandcrs, A land 7, 364
Halogaland, Helgeland in Norway,

Halogia, Ixix, xc, 87, 200, 202, 345
Hame, Ha ma, Saxon champion, 230-1,

328
Hame, Hama, Dane, 311
Hame, Hama, Swede, 313
Hame, Hama, Hamo, K. of Britain, 368,

378
Hamlet, see Amleth, and 398-413
Hamund, -us, petty king, 277, 279, 285,

287
Hamund, -us, his son, 277, 279
Hamund's Bay, 279
Handwan, -us, K. of the "Hellespont",

30. 49-5°
Hane, Hano, governor of Funen, 288

Hanef, Haneuus, Hane/, K. of Saxony,

224, 231
Hanofra (Hanover), 231
Hanund, -a, Hunnish princess, 153, 168-9,

178
Har, 311

Harald, -us, ? son of Erik the Good, 94
Harald, -us, son of Olaf, 260-3
Harald, -us, his son, 261-3
Harald I, -us, Hyldetan, K. of Denmark,

son of Borgar, cxiii, cxv, 277 (?), 296-7,

301, 307-8,309-10, 315-9
Harald, -us, son of Olat, at Bravalla, 311
Harald, -us, from " Imisland", at Bra-
valla, 311
Harald, -us, from Thotn, at Bravalla,

312
Harald II, -us, K. of Denmark, son of

Biorn, 344
Harald, -us, " Klak", Earl of Jutland,

366-9, 379, 383-4
Harald III, -us, K. of Denmark, son of

Gorm II, 386
Harald IV, -us, Bluetooth (B/aafand),

388
Harald Greyfell, xxiv
Harald Fairhair, xxx, xxxi, liv
Harald Harefoot, xliii
Hardbeen, Hartkbenus, giant, 268
Hardgrep, Harthgrepa, giantess, her

song to Hadding, lxv, cxix, 25-7
Hastin, at Bravalla, 311
Hastings, li
Hather, -us, Hatcrus, ruler of Jutland,

288, 297
Hather, -us, a chief, 269
Hather, -us, son of Hlenne, 324-330 ; his

song to Starkad, 326
Hector, xxxiii

Hedin, Hithinus, piince of some Nor-
wegians, xcvi, ciii, 195-8
Hedin, Hythin, the Slight, at Bravalla,

311

Hedin's Isle, Hithmso, mod. Hiddensoe,

iq8

INDEX.

427

Heimdall, lxiii, cxxi

Helga, d. of Frode IV, 233-6, 239-40,243,

328
Helge I, Helgo, Hundingsbane, K. of

I >enmark, xxxvi, xliv-v, 62-4, 83
Helge, Helgo, K. of Halogaland, 87-9
Helge, Hel^o, Norwegian, 238-44
Helle, Ella, Hella, A. S. /Ella, son of

Hanie, xxxiv, xciv, 368, 378-81
Hellespont, -us, xci, 30, 372, 379; Helles-

pontines, 336-8, 372
Helsings, Helsingi, 196
Helsingland, Helsingia, on G. of Bothnia,

36, 199, 264, 268
Helwin, son of Hainund, 277, 279
Hemming, -us, K. of Denmark, 361
Hendil, Hendill, 313
Henry, -icus, K. of Saxony, 23-4
Henry, -icus, son of Asmund, 32
Heorot, xxvii
Hereules, 19, 130, 348
Herebeald, xxxii

Herlek, Herletus, ruler of Norway, 100
Herlewar (Herleif ?), at Bra valla, 311
Hermutrude, Hermuthruda, Queen of

Scotland, 124-30, 401, 410; speech to

Amleth, 125-6, 127-30
Herodd, Herothus, K. of Sweden, xcii,

364.. 370
Herwig, Exercituum Sinus, Hosts' Bight,

285, 287
Heske, Hesca, Helge Hundingsbane's

general, 62
Hetha, amazon.at Bravalla, lv, 311, 315,

3J7
Hethmark, -marchia, in Norway, 199
Hiale, Hial{l)us, bully, 304-5
Hialte, Hialto, /alio, champion, 68, 71 ;

his songs to Biarke, 72, 73-4, 75-7, 79
Hialte, Hialto, at Bravalla, 310
Hiarn, -us, -o, K. of D. and poet, lxvi, c,

212, 217-8 ; his isle, Hiarno, 217
Hiarrande, Hiarrandi, son of Arngrim,

204
Hiartuar, Hiarthuuar, son of Arngrim,

204
Hiartuar, //iai\th)warus, Hiart{h)uarus,

ruler of Sweden, xxvi, 69, 70, 74, 78,

81, 83, 90
Hilda, daughter of Hogni, 195, 197-8
Hildebrand, xxvii
Hildi, at Bravalla, 312
Hildiger, -us, son ot Gunnar, xlviii, cxxiii,

289, 292-4
Hildigisl, -euus, a Teuton, 278-9
Hiarrand, harper, xxiv
Hiortuar, Hiorthuar, son of Arngrim,

205
Hlenne, Lenno, Lennus, 324, 328-9
Hlenne, /^ennius, 319
Hodbrodd, -us, Hothbrodd, - us, son of

Ragnar, 64, 83
Hodbrodd, -us, the Furious, at Bravalla,

311
Hogni, Hoginus, Jutish chief, xcvi, 196-8

Hogni the Clever, at Bravalla, ciii, 312

Hogrim, -us, ruler of Sweden, 144

Holmar, at Bravalla, 313

Holmgard, -in, in N. Russia, 197

Holmstein, Holmstcu, at Bravalla, 313

Holti, at Bravalla, 313

Homi, 313

Homod, H'dmoth us, ruler of Sweden, 144

Homod, servant of Omund, 321-2

Hornelofe, xlvi, liv, lxxxiii

Hortar, Hjort, at Bravalla, 312, 316

Horwendil, -illus, f. of Amleth, cxxiii,

104-6, 117-23
Hother, Hotherus, //othcrus, Icel. Hb%r,

K. of D. , son of Hodbrodd, xlv, lxi,

lxiv, cxxii, 64, 83-93
Hother's village, Horsens in Jutland (M.),

Hoyer in Tondern (H.), 91
Hrafn, Rafn, at Bravalla, 312
Hrafn, Rafn, Norwegian, 156-7
Hrane, Rani , son ot Arngrim, 205
Hrane, Rani, at Bravalla, 212
Hrut, 313 //.
Hrutr, cxxi

Hugleik, Hugletus, K. of D., 144
Hugleik, hugletus, K. of Ireland, 228-9

Huyrwil, -illus, chief of Oland, lxxxiii, n.,
145-6

Hwirwil, -illus, sea-king, 307

Humble, Humblus, f. of Dan, 15

Humble, Humblus, son of Dan, 16

Humbli, at Bravalla, 311

Humbrians, Huvibri, in Britain, 301

Humnehy (?), at Bravalla, 311

Hun, K. of Huns, 190, 196-7 ; his brother
Hun, 197

Hun, Ring's warrior, at Bravalla, 312

Hun, Harald's warrior, ib., 316

Hunding, -us, K. of Sweden, son of As-
mund, 40, 44, 50

Hunding, -us, fighter, 61

Hunding, -us, son of Syrik K. of Saxony,
62

Hunding, -us, ruler of Zealand, 288, 297

Hunferth, xxvii

Hunger, at Bravalla, 311

Huns, Hunni, Huni, xlvii, lxxix, 151,
153, 190, 194-7 ; called Pannonians, 314

Hwitserk, Vithsercus, Whitesark, xxvi,

370. 372, 376
Hwyting, -us, sword of Halfdan, xlvi, 292
Hygelac (Chocilaicus), cvii, cxv
Hythin, K. of Tellemark, 219 and n., 223.

See Hedin

I. J- /•

Japan, xlvi
Jarmenk, /armericus, Eormenric, Erman-

aric, K. of D., xxiv, 1, lxxviii, xci, ciii,

cv, cvii, cxv, 331-6, 338
Jarnbers, -i, in Dalarna, 197
Jather, /aiher, /athria, Jaederen in Stav-

anger, 288, 313, 321
Iceland, Tyle, Thule, ix, 310, 313
Icelanders, Tylenses, men of Thule,

428

INDEX.

lxxxix, xcviii-xcix, 3, 344, 357 ; Ice-
landic sources, ci-cxv

Jellinge, Ialunga, c, 132

Jemts, Iamti, in Sweden, 197

Imisland, I mica rcgio, 311 ; Query,

Hunuica? H. explains, "Uniea in

Lappmark"
Ing, -0, Swede, 298, 300
Ingemund, xxxv
Ingen Ruadh, lv
Ingi (Yngwe), at Bravalla, 313
Ingild, Ingell, Ingellus, 68, 78
Ingild, Ingellus, K. of D. , son of Frode

IV, xxxv, 232-3, 238-9, 242-50, 253,

256, 258, 260
Ingild, Ingellus, his son, 233
Ingild, Ingellus, K. of Sweden, 298-301
Iokul, xxxv

Jove, Jupiter, lix, 73, 225-6
Ireland, Hi(y)beruia, xliii, 147, 228, 321,

323- 379. 389
Irish, Hi[y)bcrnt , -icnses, xlviii, lxxxix,

208, 229, 285, 328
Isefjord, Ysora, mod. Rdrvig, haven in

Od District, Zealand (H. and Grundt-

vig), 90
Ismar, -us, K. of Sklavs, 332
Isulf, -us, guardian of Frode III, 148
Italy, -ia, 2, 343

Julius (Caesar, mistake for Pompey?), 213
Juritha, luritha, mother of Olaf Litillate,

222
Jutland, Iutia, D. Jylland, xxv, xc, 6-8,

41, 62, 91, 104, 116, 128, 130, 186, 197,

217, 288, 297, 300, 319, 323, 331, 361,

375, 402, 410
Jutlanders, Jutes, Iuti, 104, 195, 364, 402
Iwalde, Iwaldings, exxiv
Iwar, Iuarus, son of Ragnar Lodbrog,

3°6- 375. 377> 38l> 383
Iwar, Ywar, -us, at Bravalla, 313
Iwar Widefathom, cv

K (C).

Kall-Rasmussen's fragment, xxi, 260-3

Kalmar, Kalmarna, 314

Kanute I, Kanutus, 384

Kanute, -us, son of Gorm, 388-90

Kanute, -us, called Lavard, f. of Walde-
mar II, 9, 392

Karentia, =Garz, in Riigen, 396 ; Karen-
tines, ib.

Kail, Karolus, the Great, xxx, xlv, 359,
360, 369, 374, 395

Karl, Karolus, governor of Gothland,
260-1

Keklu-Karl, or Kelke-Karl, at Bravalla,

Kelther, -us, jarl of Sweden, 374

Ker, Kerrus, 328

Kerwil, Kervillus, Cearbhal, 208

Ket, -0, son of Frowin, 131-8

Koll, Coll, 3T2

Koll, Collcrus, K. of Norway, 105-6

Konogard, -ia, 19

Krage, Icel. Kraki, "trunk-ladder", sur-
name of Rolf, 69

Kraka, Craca, mother of Roller, lxxvii,
157-9. 178-82

Krok, Croc agrestis, the Peasant, at
Bravalla, 313 and n.

Ktesippos, lvii

Kurland, Curetia, 196

Kurs, Kurlanders, Cureles, Kyrii , Curi,
xlv, 29, 46, 100, 229, 314, 327, 328,

335- 373
Kuse, Cuse, Cuso, K. of Finns and Perms,

Ladgerda, Lathgertha, amazon, xciii,

363"6
Laneus ager, Icel. Ullr-akr, Wool-Acre,

366
Laplands, Lappia utraquc, 197, 199
Latin language, Latin Has, Lai in its

Sermo, Latin a vox, 1, 143, 285-6
Latins, 125, 225
Latium, 225-6
Laverentzen, Johan, xix ; his fragment,

xxi, 247, 251, 258-63
Leire, Lcthra, Lethrce, near Ledreborg

(or at mouth of Isefjord according to

Grundtvig), 70, 80, 129, 259, 297, 310,

3*9. 36t
Leo III, Pope, 359
Leotar, -us, Liotarus, 306-7
Ler, Helge's general, 62, 328
Lesso, Lasoe, lxxvi, 161
Lesy, Lresi, at Bravalla, 313-4
Liim- fjord, Lymfiorthinum /return,

Lymicus Sinus, Lymicum marc, in

Jutland, 7, 364
Lewy, Leuy, at Bravalla, 313
Lionel- Launcelot story, xevi, 403
Lither, Lithar-fylki , Lier by Drammen,

in Norway, 181
Livonia, 2 n.

Livonians, Liui , 314, 335
Logthi, Logthi, Ole's sword, xlvi, 306
Loke, lxix-lxxv
Loker, -us, lord of Kurs, 29
Lodbrog, Lothbrog, Icel. Ldd-brokr,

Shaggv- Breech, nick-name of Ragnar,

366
Loke, lxiii

Lombards, Longobardi, 343
London, Luudonia, xxxiii, 60-1
Lother, Loder, Lothcr^s, K. of D. , son of

Dan, 16
Louis, St. , hi
Lovi, Low, " Leaf", a sword of Biarke,

xlvi, 69
Ludwig, Lodouicus Casar, Ludouicus,

36l> 379

Lund, ix, xiii, xvii

Lysir, Liscrus, rover, lx, lxiii, 29

Lyusing, "Shining", a sword of Halfdan,

xlvi, 292

INDEX.

429

Lyuth Guthi (Hljot Godi?), at Bravalla,
312

M.
MacCon, 412
Macduff", lxiv
Magh Mucruirahe, 412
Magnus, Nicholasson, lxiii
Maidhbh, xxix
Mainz, Maguntia, 379
Mannus, cxvii //.

Mar Ruftus, the Red. at Bravalla, 313
Margaret, xxx

Martianus Capella, xxii, xcvii, ciii, 51
Matthew Paris, ci

Matul,-/ftf, Mdttull, prince of Fin mark, 373
Melbrik, -icus, " Governor of Scotland",

56
Mercury, -n/s, god, lix, 225-6
Mevil, Meuillus, admiral, 196
Midfirth, Mithfirthi pagus, " Midfiord

in Sandeherred near Tonsberg" (H.)(

3i3

Midfrith-Scegge, xlvi ;/.

Midgarth, lxxvii

Mimer, cxviii

Miming, -us, satyr, xlvi, lxv, 85

Mit-othin, Mitothyn, Mi^-OSin, pseudo-
Odin (? Loke), lxi, lxvi, cxv, 31

Moring, -ia, " S. and N. More in Sma-
land" (H.), 343; Nordmor and Sund-
mor, 196

Mul, xx vi, xxxiv

Murial, Scotch K., 378

Nanna, d. of Gewar, lxi, lxiii, 82-87, 90

Nathan's story, xxxiv

Nausicaa, xcvi

Nef, sea-king, 307

Niels of Soro, 405

Niflungs, xxxi, xciii, 392

Niord, cv, cvi, cxxii

Nitherians, Nitherl, 37 and ;/.

Norns, lxiv

Noruicus (Norwich), error for Ioruicus
(York), 378 n.

Norway, Noruagia, 8-13, 24, 37, 38, 87,
100, 104, 144, 145, 155, 157, 178, 189,
196, 200, 213, 218, 223, 225, 269, 270,
288, 297, 301, 312, 320, 323, 357, 361,

363. 366- 368
Norwegians, Xoruagienses, Norici, Nor-
manni, " Northmen", lxxxix, 156, 179,
190, 200, 202, 221, 226, 288, 289, 320,
322, 331, 363, 378

Ocean, -us, 6, 12 (see n.), 55 ( = German
O. ), see 205, 359 ; 344 {ambitorem terra-
rum 0. )

Od, Od, Englishman, at Bravalla, 313

Odd, -0, Hoddo, nephew of Frode III,
Ixxvi, 149 and «., 156, 159-61, 167

Odd, -0, chief of Jather, 321

Oddi, Otki, at Bravalla, 312

Odin, Olhinus, Othin, supposed god {see
Woden), lii, lix-lxii, lxv, cxvi, cxix,
cxxii, 30-2, 80, 84, 94-99, 144, 225,
296-8, 307, 317, 338, 367 (Roftar,
Hrdptr); = Ygg, Uggerus, 195

Odusseus, lxxvi, xcv, cxvii

Oft'ot, -us, giant, " Cnfoot", lxv, xcvii, 214

Ohthere, lix, xc

Oland, Olandia, Olandia, Holandia, 145

(see #. ), 196, 263 (Osysscl in Liimfiord

according to H. , but certainly Oland off
Sweden in last two cases)
Olaf, Olauus, the Gentle, alias of Uffe,

143
Olaf, -uus, son of Fridleif, 222-3
Olaf, -uus, K. of D. , son of Ingild, 233,

260
Olaf, -uus, son of Alver, K. of Sweden,

298, 300
Olaf, -uus, K. of Thronds, 300
Olaf, -uus, K. of Werms, 304-5
Olaf, -uus, K. of D. , son of Gotrik, 361
Olaf the Stout, xxxv

Olaf Tryggwesson, xxiv, lvi, Ixxxii, 417-21
Ole, Olo, K.. of D. , son of Siward, 301-7,

314, 319-20, 324, 327
Oiler, -us, Wuldor, pseudo-god, lxii, 98,

99
Olmar, Ohmarus, K. of Easterlings or

W. Russians, 190-6
Olwirthe Broad, at Bravalla, 309
Oly, son of Elrik, at Bravalla, 313

Omi, harbour in Jaederen, Stavanger, 184
Omund, -us, K. of D. , son of Ole, liii,

306, 320-3, 330
Onef, sea-king, 307

Onef, Onef, Orjeuus, sea-king, 196-7
Ophelia, 399, 411

Orkneys, Orc(h)ades, 196, 369, 378
Orm, Britaunicusox Anglicus, the Briton,

301, 310
Orwar-Odd, see Arwar-Odd
Osten, -us, son of Siward the Goth, 274
Osten, -us, in Sweden, 382
Otgerus, Otkerus, Ogier, lxiv
Otrit, -us, the Young, at Bravalla, 311
Ottar, Otharus, son of Ebb, cxxi, 271 3
Otto, x

Owain, Sir, lxix
Oxford, xlvi

Palatine co. of Chester, xlii

Paltisca, Polotzk in W. Russia ("Pleskau,

Plescovia", H.), 49
Pans, Panes, Satyrs, 51
Papil Cross in Shetland, lxxxiii
Paris, 3 n.
Patrick, St., xxviii
Patrick Spens, Sir, lxxv
Pepin, Pipinus, son of Karl the Great,

359

4JJ0

INDEX.

Permland,/>7( y)<inuia, 203-4, 228, 346, 373
Perms, Permianders, Byarmi, I>i(y)ar-

menses, lxxix, xcv, 38, 39, 87, 204
Phoenician temples, lxii
Pictland, Petia, 368
Picts, lii

Poland, Polouia, 230
Polonius, 399
Polyphemus, lxv

Porenutius or Porevitus, idol, 397
Proserpina, =Hela, lxi, 93
Proteus, 27

Rabelais, xxxi

Radbard, Rathbarthus, 313; seen.

Radbard, Rathberthus, son of Ragnar
Lodbrog, 366, 370, 378

Rafnkel, Ran Ail, at Bravalla, 313

Ragnald, Regnaldus, rival of Yngwin,
271

Ragnald, Regnaldus, K. of Northmen,
xlvi, 288, 290

Ragnald, Regnaldus, Rutheman, 313

Ragnald, Regnaldus, son of Ragnar Lod-
brog, 370

Ragnar, Regnerus, K. of Sweden, 50, 52,
54- 61, 63

Ragnar, Regnerus, Regno, champion and
f. of Erik', 156, 158, 178

Ragnar, Regno, rearer of Halfdan, 262-3

Ragnar, Regnerus, Lodbrog or Shaggy-
breech, K. of D. , xxvi, xliv, xlv, xcii,
xciii, 362, 363-6, 368-80

Ragnhild, Regnilda, d. of Hakon the
" Nitherian", 37

Rand, sea-king, 307

Rati, of Funen, at Bravalla, 309

Rawi, 313 ; see Hrut

Redward, Reduarthus, sea-king, 307

Ref, Refo, Icelander, 357-8

Ref 's gild, xxvi, xxxiv, xlv

Rennes Isle, Renneso, Rensb, in Stavan-
ger, 166, 189

Rethyr, at Bravalla, 312

Revil, -illus, admiral, 196

Rhampsinitos, xxxv

Rhine, Rhenus, 56, 197, 301, 359

Richard II, xliii

Rin, son of Flebak, 328

Rinda, Russian princess, Wrinda, lxi, 94,

95. 99
Ring, -0, surname of Siward, K. of D.,

q. v.
Ring, Adilsson, at Bravalla, 312
Ring, f. of Siward, 301
Ring, -0, Zealander, 23
Ring, -0, K. of Sweden, son of Ingild,

301, 307-8, 309-19
Ring, -0, ruler of a Norwegian tribe, 320-2
Ring, -o, grandson of Gotrik, 361-3
Roar, Roarius, teacher of Gram, 19
Ro, Roe, son of Frode I, 61
Ro, Roe, K. of D. , son of Halfdan, 62, 64
Ro, Roe, Rix! (Hrothgar?), xc, 309, 316

Rob Roy's sons, xliii

Rognwald, Earl, xxiv //.

Rokar the Swart (Hrokkr), at Bravalla, 312

Roldar, Rolder, "Toe-Joint" (Hroaldr)

at Bravalla, 312, 317
Rolf the Uxorious, at Bravalla, 312
Rolf, Rolpho, Roluo, " Krake" (</. v.), K.

of D. , xlv, xlvi, Ivii, xcv, ciii, cxvii,

63-70, 75. 77, 78, 80-2, 90
Roliung, Rblung, in Zealand, 240, 330
Roller, -us, son of Ragnar the Champion,

lxxvi, 156-160, 165, 168, 173, 178, 180,

184, 190, 196
Romans, 6, 225, 359, 374
Rome, 360

Rorik, Rorieus, son of Bok, 75
Rorik, Rorieus, Slyngebond = Swing-
bracelet (Hrothric), K. of D. , cxiii,

100-104, 106, 128
Rorik, Rorieus, ruler of Jutland, 288, 297
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 400
Roskild, Roski(y)ldia (Roes-kild = Hroth-

gar's well), D. Roskilde, old capital of

Zealand, ix, xii, xvii, 1, 62
Rostar, Roster (properly Roftar, Hroptr),

see Odin
Rostioph, -us, Hrossthiof, a Finn, lxi,

lxv, 94
Rote, Rot/10, Walkyrie, 258
Rotel, Rotala, in Esthonia, 48
Rothe, Rbtho, Ruthenian rover, 1, 290-1
Rothe-Ran (Rothe's Robbery), 290
Riigen, Rugia, D. Rygen, island, 343,

392-6
Riigeners, Rugiaui, 393-6
Rugie-Vitus, idol, 396
Russia, Ruseia, 48, 190, 196, 197, 212,

213, 227, 229, 230, 292
Russians, Rut(h)enians, Rut[h)eni (the

term not co-extensive with Russians),

xlii, 47-8, 94, 192, 290, 292, 372, 378
Ruther, cxxi

Salgard, Salgarlhus, at Bravalla, 309

Sali, Goth, ib. ,312

Sam bar, ib. , 309

Samso, Sampso, island, between Kalund
borg and Aarhus (Grundtvig), 205

Sangals, -/, 229

Saxo the Splitter (Fletir), 312

Saxo, Grammaticus, the Lettered, Intro-
duction to, i-exxvii (see table of C< in-
tents); his History part-translated, i-end

Saxo, provost of Roskild, xii

Saxo the Scribe, xiii

Saxo, " M agister", xiii

Saxons, Saxon es, xliv, xlv, 17, 24, 41, 62,
145, 224, 230, 250, 294, 296, 315, 358,
370, 379

Saxony, Saxon ia, 23, 41, 62, 86, 89, 138,
142, 143, 197, 224, 359, 369

Scandinavia, xxx

Scef, cxvi

Scot, Seottus, founder of Scotland, 55

INDEX.

4a i

Scotland, Scot{t)ia, 56, 60, 124, 306
Scots, Scu({t)i, Scott hit 60, 126-7, 287,

378
Scyths, Scithee, xcv, 372
Seine, Sighuinum tinmen, 369
Scla, sister of Roller, 106
Sembs, Senibi, Sawbones, 229, 335, 373
Semgala, 328
Serker, at Bravalla, 311
Sibb, -o, father of Ebb, 332, 334
Sigar, Sigarus, Sygarus, K. of D., son of

Siwald, 274-5, 278-82, 284-6
Sigarsted, 284
Sigfred, Ixiv
Sigmund, Sygmundus, son of Benio, at

Bravalla, 311
Sigmund, Sitnundus, at Bravalla, 313
Signe, 403

Signe, d. of Sumbl, 23
Signe, Signe, d. of Karl, 260-1
Signe, Signe, Sygne, d. of Sigar, 274, 278,

280 ; her speech to Hagbard, 281
Sigrid, Syritha, d. of Siwald, cxxi, 271,

273
Sigtryg, Sigtrug, K. of Sweden, 19, 22
Sigtun, town in Sweden, " Eorn-Sigtuna

near Sigtuna" (H.), 313
Sigurd Fafnesbane, 419
Simon, governor of Skaane, 332
Sitones, xxix

Siwald, Syualdus, Swede, 266-7
Siwald I, Syualdus, son of Yngwin, K.

of D. , 271, 274
Siwald II, Syualdus, K. of D., son of

Sigar, 274, 286-7
Siwald III, Syualdus, K. of D. , 339
Si war, Siuarus, a Saxon, xxxi, 294
Siward, Siuardus, "of royal stock", 382
Siward, Syuardus, son of Ole, 301-6
Siward, Syuardus, K. of Sweden, 244,

260
Siward, Syuardus, K. of Goths, 274-5
Siward, Syuardus, " Boarhead", at Bra-
valla, 313
Siward I, Syuardus, K. of D. , son of

Omund, 330, 331, 334
Siward, Siuardus, Norwegian, 360, 363
Siward II, "Ring", Siuardus, K. of D.,

.360-3
Siward III, Siwardus, Sywardus, "Snake-
eye", D. Snogdie, K. of D. , 366-7, 369,
378, 381-3
Siward, Earl of Northumberland, xxxvi
Skaane, Scania, once Danish, now
Swedish, xxv, 38, 129, 288, 311, 319,
321, 331, 339
Skaga-fiord, Scaha-Fyrthi (" Skougen on

borders of Tellemark," H.), 313
Skalk, Scale, Skalc, the Skanian, 198,

203, 309, 316 (?)
Skalk, Scalcus, K. of Sklavia, 62
Skalk, Scalcus, page of Biarke, 72
Skanians, Scani, 198, 203, 287, 321, 361,
, 364, 366
Skat, Scatus, champion, 17

Skat, Scatus, ruler of Alemannia, 18

Skat, Sea to, 61

Skat, Scatus, son of Erode I, 61

Skate, Scatus, bully, 304, 305

Skawe, the, 8, //.

Scef, patriarch, cxvi

Skier, Skerry in Iceland (?), "Skier in

Tellemark," (H.) 313
Skiold, Scioldus, K. of D. , son of Lother,

xxiii, xxv n., xxix, xxxviii, xl, xcv, cxii,

16-17
Skioldungs, 17
Sklavia, Sclavonia, Sclauia, 62, 185, 301,

3I4. 3*9

Sklavs, Sclavs, Slavs, xlviii, 100, 102,

184-7, l97, 229, 332-6, 388
Skrep, Wermund's sword, xlvi, 141, 143
Skrik-Einns, ?Skrito-Einns, Scricjfnni, 13
Skroter, Scroter, a ship, liii, 156
Skulda, Sculda, sister of Rolf, 69-70, 74
Skumbar, Scumbar, at Bravalla, 312
Sle, Slesvig, Schleswig, 131, 310, 382
Sleipner, xcvii
Sluys, liii
Snio, K. of Denmark, son of Siwald, xciii,

339-40, 344
Snorre, lix

Snyrtir, sword of Biarke, xlvi, 78
Sogni, better Sogn, Soghni, in Norway,

312
Soknarsoti, 312 and n.
Soleyar, Sollber, insula; Solis, 199
Solongs, -i, dwellers there, 198
Solwe, at Bravalla, 312
Sora, ix

Sorle, Sorlus, K. of Sweden, 370
Soth, champion, at Bravalla, 316
Stad, Stadium, town, " Hollingstedt near

Schleswig?" (H.), 62
Stanitia, marg. led. Stuatira, idol in

Riigen, 396
Starkad, Starcatherus, Starchaterus, Star-
cherus, Icel. Starkadr, D. Statrkodder,
hero, son of Storwerk, xxvii, xxviii, lv,
lxiii, lxvi, lxxxi, lxxxiii, 224-231, 233-4;
song over the smith, 235-7, 238-251 ;
song at Ingild's feast, 251-7 ; triumph-
song, 258-9; 274, 285, 307, 309, 316,
319-20, 323 ; song against Hather,
324-26 ; another, 326-9 ; 330, 418-21 ;
mis-spelt Scarchdhum , 370
Stein, Stcn, Tolo-Stein (?), at Bravalla,

312
Stenbiorn, robber, 213
Stikla, Sticla, Stikla, amazon, 200, 300
Storwerk, Storuerkus, f. of Starkad, 224
Strunik, Strunicus, K. of Sklavs, 186
Styr, Slur, the Stout, 312
Styx, 27, 294

Suanto-vit(h)us, idol in Riigen, 392-96
Sumble, Sumblus, K. of Finns, 23
Susa, " Suus-Aa in Zealand" (H.), "un-
certain, but most likely the river running
from Bavelse Lake to Noetved" (Grundt-
vig), 285, 287

432

INDEX.

Swanhwid, Suanhuita, d. of Hadding,
xxxiv, 50, 52 ; her speech to Ragnar,
52 ; 53-4, 63

Swanhild, Suanilda, wife of Jarmerik,
Ixxviii, 337-8

Swanloga, Suanlog{h)a, wife of Ragnar,
, 370, 378

Swarin, Suarinus, ruler of Gothland, 22,
23

Sweden, Suet{h)ia, 9, 12, 13, 22, 24, 25,
33. 34- 35- 5°. 54. 61, 63, 69, 89, 90, 99,
131-2, 135, 144, 196, 199, 203, 213, 223,
224, 225, 233, 244, 252, 260, 263, 265,
292, 300, 301, 334, 340, 352, 363, 370,

376, 378, 383
Swedes, Sue{t)ones, Sficti, xliv, xlv, 19,

20, 22, 36, 37, 44, 53, 64, 67, 71, 82, 89,

90, 100, 133, 138, 198, 200, 204, 224,

228, 233, 238, 265, 266, 268, 269, 274,

298, 312, 313-8, 330, 339, 358, 364, 375
Sweyn Aageson, Suetio Aggonis, Dan.

Svend, historian, ix, x, cvii
Sweyn, Svein, Suen, at Bravalla, 309
Sweyn, Sueno, "Top-shorn", at Bravalla,

312
Sweyn, Sueno, "Fork-beard", K. of D. ,

62
Sweyn Estridsson, xiv
Swipdag, Suipdagerus, K. of Norway

and Denmark, lxxi, lxxv, cxvii, exx, 23,

24, 25, 30, 32
Swipdag, Suibdauus, warrior of Starkad,

228
Syersted, town, 274 (in gloss)
Syfrid, -us, Saxon general, 41

Tamerlane, 404

Tand, Tander, son of Arngrim, 204

Tanne, Tanna, giant, 230

Tara, 412-3

Tarquin, 408

Tartarus, lxxii, 20, 27, 283, 318

Tatar, at Bravalla, 310

Tellemark, Telemarchia, Thialamarchia,
a province in Norway, 219, 302, 312,
316, 322, 328

Teutonland, Teutonia, 7, 247. See
Germany

Teutons, Teutones, 16, 17, 62, 230, 250,
253, 280. See Germans

Tew, lxiii, cxv

Thengel, Thengil, at Bravalla, 312

Thengil, -illus, K. of Finmark, 203

Theseus, xxxv

Thiodwulf, xxv

Thokc (Thore?), Thoki, of More, at Brav-
alla, 312

Thole, Thola, son of Atyl, 305, 322-3

Thomas of Ercildoune, lxviii, lxxii, lxxv

Thor, god, lix, lxi-lxiii, cxvi, 53, 88, 225
(Trior's day, 225), 265, 349

Thora, mother of Urse, 62-3

Thora, d. of Cuse, 87, 89

Thora, d. of Herodd, 364, 368, 372

Thorbiorn, robber, 213

Thord, "Stumbler", at Bravalla, 312

Thore, Thoro, champion, 264-5

Thore, Thoro, chief, 306-7

Thorey, "Thoro near Taasinge" (H.),

" Thora's Isle ', 62
Thorgny, Thorny, at Bravalla, 310
Thorhild, Thorilda, wife of Hunding, 50,

54
Thorhild, Thorilda, d. of Hather, 269-70
Thorias (?), soldier of Rusla, 323
Thorkill, Torillus, orator with Erode,

his speech, 56-8
Thorkill, -us, the Goth, at Bravalla, 312
Thorkill, -us, of Tellemark, 316
Thorkill, -us, with Gudmund, xxiii, lxix-

lxxvi, 344-357
Thorkill, 418

Thorkill, -us, earl of Sweden, 374
Thorleif, Thorleuar, the Stubborn, at

Bravalla, 312
Thorolf, -us, the Thick, at Bravalla, 312
Thorstan Shiver, 417-21
Thorwald, Thoraldus, son of Hunding,

5°
Thorwil, Thormllus, sea-king, 307

Thorwing, Thoruingus, at Bravalla, 310

Thotn, Thotni vicus, " Toten near Lake

Mosen in Norway" (H.), 312
Thott, -us, 319

Thrand, Thronder, at Bravalla, 312
Thririkar (Erik?), ib. , 314
Thrond, -?/s, brother of Rusla, 322
Throndar, " Big-nose", at Bravalla, 312
Thronds, -/, xxiv-v, 300, 317
Thrygir (Tryggve), at Bravalla, cvii(?), 314
Thule, see Iceland
Thuriswend, xxxv
Thyra, "Danebod", d. of Ethelred, x,

cxiv, 386-90
Toke, Toko, rover, 266
Toke, Toko, Gunn's servant, 302
Toke of the Arrows, Toko, "Palnatoke",

xlvii, xevi, 391-2
Toki, from Wollin, at Bravalla, 311
Tolkar, To/car, at Bravalla, 311
Toli, 310
Torwil, 314

Toste, Tosto, " the Wicked", hi, 40-2
Toste, Tosto Victimarius, "Sacrificer",

306
Tovi, 312

Trannon, K. of Russians, 47
Tristram, xlvi
Tummi, "Sailmaker", 311
Tyle, Tylenses, see Iceland, Icelanders
Tyrfing, Tiniingar, son of Arngrim, 204
Tyrfing, sword, xlvi ;/.

U. Y.
Ubbe, Vbbo, brother-in-law of Hadding,

54
Ubbe, Vbbo, servant of Rorik, 103
Ubbe, Vbbo, Frisian champion, 300, 310,

317

IN'DK.X.

433

Ubbe, llbo, son of Ragnar Lodbrog, 371,

374-5- 377
Uffe, Vffo, K. of Swedes, son of Asmund,

lxvi, 33, 35, 38, 39
Uffe, Vffo, K. ot Denmark, son of Wer-

mund, 130, 139-143
Ygg, Vggerus, name of Odin, 195
Ymi, at Bravalla, 311
Ulf, 312

Ulf, VI no, Gotrik's courtier, 357
Undensakre, "acre of the not-dead", bcvii

sq., 129 and ;/.
Ung, -o, at Bravalla, 314
Yngwin, Vnguinus, K. of Goths, 270
Upsala, Vpsalcti Ivii, lx, lxi, lxvi, cxxi, 30,

33. 39. 90. 228, 239, 313
Urne, Bishop Lave [Lago), xi, xii, xvii,

xx i
Urse, Vrsa, d. of Thora, 62-67
Utgard, Vtgarthia, 377 and n.
Utgarda-Lok, Vgarthilocus, Outgarth-

Loke, monster-god, lxxi, 352-6

V. W,
Varnsland, Verundia, in Smaaland, 9, 314
Waere (Voerebro), bridge in Zealand

"between Roskilde and Slangerup"

(Grundtvig), 211
Wagnhofde, Vagnopkthus, Vagn{k)qft{h)-

us, Wain-Head, giant, lxv, exix, 24, 25,

Walbrunna, Cadaver um puteus, "Well
of Carcases," "near Sigersted in Zea-
land" (H.), 286

Waldemar I, Voldemarus, xi, 9

Waldemar II, Voldemarus, 5

Waist ein, W ah ten, of Wik, 312

Vanderdecken, Ixxix

Waske or Wilske, or Warn, champion,
230, 328

Webiorg, Wegthbiorg, Wigbiorg, lv,
310, 316

Wecha (Wacr), alias of Odin, 97

Weland, xxviii

Wemund, -us, son of Siward, 274

Werraland, Wermia, in Sweden, 199

Wermlanders, Wermi, 198, 304

Wermund, -us, K. of D. , son of \\Tiglek,

i30-3- i38"I43

Wesete, Wesetus, champion, 296

Vespasias*, K. ofPaltisca, 49

Westmar, -us, teacher oi Frodelll, 139-

1 52 ; his speech, 152 ; 169, 172
Whiteby, Hvitabv in Skaane, 364
Wienie Mere, Wienica Pains, 312
Wife of Usher's Well, lxviii
Vifil, 403
Wigflis, evi

Wig, II '/go, son of Frowin, 1 3 r , 135, 137
Wigar, 1 1 'igerus, 285
Wigg, ViggO, servant of Rolf, 69-70
Wiglek, Vigletus, K. ofD., 128-30
\\'ik, ll'/'f, in S. (Gothland, 314
Wik, Wig, Yigen in X. Norway, xli, 199,

202
Wikar, -us, K. of Norway, xxv-xxvi,

226-7
Wikars, Wicari, dwellers in Wik, 297
" William Riley," xliii
William the Conqueror, xlv, lx.wii, lxxix
William the Little, ci
William, abbot, cvii
William of Palerne, 412
Windar (I'>ywind?), 312
Win, W'/u us, Sklav, 229 ( = Rin?)
Virgil, xxi, 30

Wisin, Wisinnus, champion, 230, 328
Wisna, amazon, lv, 310, 315, 316
Withne, Vithn, 319
Witolf, V'/iolfi/s, 264
Witthe, V'/ttlw, Frisian rover, 55
\ritus, St., 394
Wivil, Wiuillus, 314
Woden, xxxiii sq. SeeO&\\\
Wollin, Iulinensis provineia, sland, 311
Wolsungs, xxxi, cv
\'oltaire, xxix

Xerxes, xlviii

Zealand, Sialandia, D. Scelland, xi, xxv,

xc, 8, 90, 129, 146, 161, 2ii, 238, 263,
273, 288, 296, 311, 319, 375
Zealanders, Sialaudi, -enses, Syelandici,
xi, 23, 82, 161, 319, 361, 362, 364

II.— NORSE POEMS CITED.

AtlakviSa, old Lay of Attila, xxvi, lviii,

lix, lxxix, civ
Atla-mal, lix
Beowulf's Lay, xxvi, xxvii, xxix, xxxii,

xxxv, xxxviii, xl, xlvii, xlix, lvii, lviii,

lxvi, lxxx, xc, xcii, ciii, civ, cvii, cxvii,

exx, 80

Biarka-mal, xxv, xlvii, cii, civ

Bragi's Shield-Song, ciii

Brunhild Lay (C. P. B. i. 308), xxxiii ;
Long B. 's Lay, bcvii

Corpus Poelicum Boreale (C. P. B. ), xxxii,
xxxiii, xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii, xlvi-vii, liii,
hi, lvii, lix, lxiv, lxv, lxvii, lxxix, lxxx,

F F

434

[NDEX.

lxxxiii, lxxxv, xcvi, ciii, civ, cxiii, 31, 37,

66, 78, 204, 223, 293, 297, 307, 309, 337,

344, 361-2, 367, 402
Cri in m's Centenary Papers (G. C. P.),

xxxi, lxxix
Darrada-lio'S, lxv, civ
Fi nn's Lay, xxv, lxv
( rripe's Lay, civ
Gudrun's Lay, lxix, lxxix
Guest's Wisdom, lxxxviii
Hamdis-mal, ciii
Heidrec's Riddles, cxvii
Helgi and Cara's Lay, liii
Helge Lay, civ, cxiii
Hyndla Lay, lix, xc
Loka-senna (C. P. D. i. 102), xxxiii
Niord and Scathe's Lay, cvi
Old Wolsung Play, lxxxvi ; W. Wolsung

Lav, lxxxviii

Ravensong, xlvi, 1

Rigs-mal, xxxi, lv

Sigrun's Lay, civ

Skaldskapa-mal, ciii

Skida-Rima, lx, lxxv, lxxvi

Skirnis-mal, ciii, cxviii

Snsebiorn's poem, 402, 408, 409, 410

Starkad's Lay, cii, civ, cv

Swipdag's Lay, lxvii

Thor's Lay, lxxii

Thulor, lxv

Wafthrudner's Lay, lxvii

Wanderer's Lay, xxvii

Western Aristophanes, lxxvi; Loka-senna,

exxii
Widsith's Lay, ciii
Wolospa, lxxxiii, exxii
Ynglinga-Saga, 228
Ynglingatal, xxv, xxxv, lxvi, cxiv

III.— SAGAS, Etc., CITED.

Adam of Bremen, xcviii, Ixxxii, 384

Ambales Saga, 404, 409

Aml6fta Saga, 404

Annales Esromenses, xxv

Asmund Cappabana Saga, civ, exxiii

Bede, Church History, xli, xci, xcviii, 15

77
Cormac's Saga, xxxvi, xxxvii
Dudo, Norman History, xci, xcviii, 15

and n.
Egil's Saga, xlv, xlvii, xlix, lix, lxxxv, xc
Life of Elf heah, lvii
Flatey-book, lx
Fornaklar Sogur, xcix
Fostbrosftra Saga, xxxiii
Frithiof's Saga, liii
Gisli's Saga, xxxiii
Gregory's Handbook, xxxix
Gretter's Saga, lxxx, lxxxv, 403
Ha raid Hardrede's Life, xliii, xlvii
Heims-cringla, xxiv
Holmveria Saga, xcvii

Hrolf's Saga, lvii
Isfirdinga Saga, lxvi
Jomsvikinga Saga, xli, lvii, civ
jordanis, De Rebus Getieis, 338, 411
Landnama-boc, xxix, xxxv, xxxvi, xlvi,

lxxvi, xc
Langfeftga-tal, c, cvi, cxii
Xial's Saga, xxx, xlix, lxxxv, lxxxvi,

lxxxvii, 279
O. E. Chronicle, xxxvi, xxxvii, 377
Orkney Saga, xxxiv
Onvar-Odd's Saga, lxxxvii
Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards,

xxxv, lvii, xcv, 343
Olaf Tryggwesson's Life, xxxv
Olaf's Life, xxvi
Sigurd the Crusader's Life, lvi
Snorre, li ;/. ; Prose Edda, lxiii, lxvii, xciv
Sorla battr, ciii
Thidrek's Saga, lxxx
Vatzdaela Saga, xxxvi, xlii
Walter Saga, xxxvi

IV.— MODERN STUDENTS CITED.

Arnason, J. , 405

Bruun, Dr. Chr. , xvii, xx

Detter, Dr. F. , 402, 404, 409

Fiddes, E., suggestions, 11, 12, 333

Grundtvig.Dr. N. F. S., xix, 428, 431, 433

Holder, Dr. A., xx, x\i, 12, 37, 64, 76,

122, 171, 181, 217, 231, 233, 360, etc.
Horn, History of Literature of Scand.

North, ix
Jiriczek, Dr. , 404
Jorgensen, A. D. , xv
Langebek, Serif-tores k'eruiu Da ni earn in,

ix, xi, XXV

Latham, Dr. , 410

Alaurer, K. , Island, 83

Mogk, Dr. E. , 51, 223

Midler, P. E. (" M." in notes), xi, xiii,
xviii, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 13, 20, 64, T], 80,
83, 89, 91, 94, 98, 107, 129, 145, 146,
149, 151, 156, 166, 178, 188, 193, 199,
213, 219, 233, 235, 285, 286, 287, 299,
302, 309, 310, 312, 313, 327, 328, 364,
368, 375. 376- 38l> 382- 402. See \V1-
schow

Olrik, Dr. Axel, ci-ciii, cxii folk, 410

Paludan-Muller, C. , xiii, xv

INDEX.

435

Rhys, Prof. , 411

Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology, lxii, lxiii,

Ixiv, Ixv, lxii, lxxii, Ixxx, xcvii, cxvi,

cxxiii, cxxvii, 15, 30, 64, 129, 411
Schousbolle, Seier, xix, 7, 13, 32, 312
Steenstrup, Nomnanneme, xlix, lv
Stephanius, xviii, 11, 27, 47, 64, 66, 80,

148, 163, 167, 170, 171, 201, 233, 306,

327, 360, 370

Uhland, 400

Vedel, translator of Saxo, xviii, xix,

404
Velsehow, Mtiller andV.'s, ed. of Saxo,

xi, xiii, xviii. The notes arc cited

indifferently as from " M."
Vigfusson, Dr. Gudbrand, \l\ii, exxiv

265, 408, 418
Zinzow, 1 )r. , 410

Caesar, Caius Julius, De B.
Chanson de Roland, xxxiv
Cicero, 126

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 406-9
Ford, 389
Goethe, 398, 400
Homer, Odyssey, lxii, lxxi
Livy, 406-8

V.— CLASSICS, Etc., CITED

lxxxiii

Milton, P. /.., 354
Nibelungen Lied, xxvii
Ovid, 406

Shakspere, Hamlet, 398-401
Spenser, F. Quecne, lxviii, lxxiii
Tacitus, Germaniat xxix
Valerius Maximus, xxii, li, xcvii,
406, 409

176,

296011

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

PAGE

wii, for Pederson read Pedersen.

xxv, npte.forS. R. S. readS. R. I).

Mi\, for Appendix III read Appendix I.

xcvj, for Appendix III rend Appendix II.

cxxvii. Names. — In making the Index, I have found more variations in the Englishing

of the names than could be w ished. The reader must pardon several corrections ;

the sheets have been printed off, as the work has had to be done, at long intervals,

and some inconsistencies have crept in.

29, top,_/b/- Vaarnsland read Varnsland.

30, line 2, for I Iandvan read Handwan.
58, 1. 7 from end, for siezed read seized.
62, for I [elgi r, ad I lelge.

68 and 78, for Ingell read Ingild.

72 foil., for Bjarke, HjaJte, read Biarke, Hialte.

74, for Skulde, Rute, read Skulda, Ruta.

78, note, for helmit read helmet.

87, for Cuse read Kuse.

94, for Hrossthiolf read Hrossthiof.

95, after Hrosstheow add Hr6ptr.
104 {dH., for Koll read Koller.

112, last line, for knotted tapestry read woven knots.

126, line 11, for women r<v/(/ woman.

135,/fr Vermund read Wermund.

171, note./brGotvar read Got war.

192, for Rutenians read Ruthenians (bis).

194, for Olimar read Olmar.

196, after Esthonia and Kurland add with Oland.

199, for Aswit read Aswid.

202, for Wig read Wik.

208, for Kervil read Kerwil.

223, for PYode read Frode.

263, last line, for nephew read grandson.

271-3. From E. Koeppel, Quelle)/ urid Forschungen, No. 70, Studien zi/r Gesehi elite der
italienischen Novellein der eng. Lit. des i6teu Jahr., 1892, p. 87, «<?/t\abridged]: —
The first translation o{ the Decameron (1620) into English, which is taken from the
bowdlerised Church-sanctioned versions, substitutes for Dec. iii. 10 the tale of
Syritha, taken from Belleforest, Hist. Tragiques, vol. iv, No. 75 : "The wonderful
and chaste resolved continency of faire Serichtha, daughter to Siwald, King of
Denmark, etc." Allusions in Robert Greene to the same story (from Belief, doubt-
less) : in Ma mi 'Ilia (1583), "Sirichia, daughter of Smald (sic)," etc. (Grosart, ii.
52), and Gwydonius (1587), called Sirithia [the point emphasised being her mar-
riage to a peasant].

275 io\\., for Blackmen read Blacmen.

288, 290, /~6>r Regnald ?rad Ragnald.

288, for Drott read Drota.

296, for Skane read Skaane.

343, for Gotland read Gothland.

349, line 11 from end, for tossing . . . other, read with mutual motion of goatish backs.

359, delete note 2.

366, for Harald read Harald.

368, line 6 from end,/<?r Helle read Ella.

370, line 12, for the succeeding king /-<</</ the king chosen in his stead.

379, line 3 from end, /or he unhallowed .... shrines read he pulled down the shrines
that had been profaned by the error of misbelievers [omitting Holder's comma after
diruit and reading profanata ,

398. Goethe and Saxo. — I owe to the kindness of Dr. A. W. Ward the following
reference. In Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller and Goethe, ed. 1856, i. 316,
Goethe writes: "This morning I turned to [or, went at] the Amlet of Saxo
Grammaticus ; unluckily, the story, without being put vigorously through a purify-
ing fire, docs not admit of being used; but, if one can master it, the result will be
by no means unpleasing, and will be noticeable by way of comparison" [with
Shakspen

Piinted by Cmas J Cl auk, t, Liocoln'l Inn Fields, London, W.C.

S34 I

S^xo Gr prom Ft icus.

The first nine books of the
Danish history.

.S3

21200-

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